Which side are you on — Godse or Gandhi, Prashant Kishor asks Nitish Kumar

Patna: Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor on Tuesday redirected his attention to Bihar politics, starting with a brand new outreach and throwing a number of uncomfortable questions at former mentor Nitish Kumar, who expelled him from the Janata Dal United last month after an acrimonious war of words.

Announcing a "Baat Bihar Ki" programme to reach out to thousands of the state's younger voters, the ace election-planner ruled out forming any political party or joining one ahead of the Bihar election later this year.

As he dissected the Chief Minister's claims about development in Bihar, Kishor questioned what he called Nitish Kumar's ideological compromise to stay in the alliance with the BJP. Support for Mahatma Gandhi and support for his killer Nathuram Godse cannot go together, he stressed, urging Kumar to pick a side.

"There have been many discussions between me and Nitishji about the party's ideology. Nitishji always told us that the party can never leave the ideals of Gandhiji.... But now the party is with those who are soft on Gandhi's killer Nathuram Godse.... For me Gandhiji and Godse cannot go hand-in-hand," he said.

Addressing a press conference here, the first since his expulsion from the JD(U), Kishor asserted that the Chief Minister has been a "father figure" to him even before he formally joined the party and so he wished to speak no ill of him.

He added that his outreach programme would reach out to people who believe that the state is in need for new and powerful leadership, and maintained: "My sole focus is that in the next 100 days I'll launch this programme 'Baat Bihar Ki', that will put Bihar to be among the top 10 states in India."

Hitting out at Kumar for following the words of Gujarat leaders, an indirect reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, Kishor said the state needs a strong leader and "not a hanger-on".

JD(U) reacted angrily to Kishor's criticism of Kumar, advising him to devote his time to his "business" instead of dabbling in politics.