Excitement knew no bounds for the family members of Krishna Prasad Sahu of Patna City when Chief Minister Nitish Kumar knocked at their door on Thursday, kicking off the ruling JD(U)’s election campaign Har Ghar Dastak, Ghar Ghar Dastak (door-to-door). Awestruck, Mr. Sahu and his family clicked a ‘selfie’ with the Chief Minister.
Mr. Kumar asked the family about the performance of his government in the past 10 years and wanted to know what it should do in future. They were all praise for the government and said they would like Mr. Kumar to return to power. As Mr. Kumar made a hurried exit, a party colleague pasted a sticker bearing his picture and a telephone number on the main door of the house.
Next, the Chief Minister went to the house of Asharafi Poddar, in Paschim Darwaza locality. Here, too, he spent a few minutes before completing the formalities. In all, Mr. Kumar visited 21 families in the Patna Sahib Assembly constituency, a traditional bastion of the BJP.
Earlier in the day, starting his campaign, he visited the famous Badi Patan Devi temple, where he offered prayers and rung the bell, and greeted the people gathered outside. Waving to the crowd, he walked two km through the lanes and by-lanes of the congested Patna City area. He also visited a mosque.
“Being a disciplined member of my party, I, too, have come to visit 10 households as part of the programme started by JD(U) Bihar president Basistha Narayan Singh. I’ve sought the opinion on my government from the people and their views on the works to be done in future,” Mr. Nitish Kumar told journalists.
Under the programme, all 10 lakh party members will have to visit 10 households every day in three phases over the next 30 days. The first phase will go on till July 11. “The target is to cover three crore households in a month,” JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar told The Hindu.
On Wednesday, the JD(U)’s campaign publicity team also launched a lyrical mobile phone ring tone for the party workers and supporters. Bihar Mein Bahar Ho, Nitishe Kumar Ho [there should be spring in Bihar, once again Nitish Kumar] was composed by Sneha Khandilkar, a Bollywood music director.
These strategies have been scripted by Prashant Kishor and his team of young entrepreneurs working round the clock for the ruling party. Mr. Kishor and his team had experimented with these ideas for Narendra Modi when he was the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election.
