Nitish blows poll bugle, goes knocking on doors in Bihar

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar – who has been declared the Chief Ministerial candidate of JD-U, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), Congress and NCP – launched the campaign in Patna. State JD-U leaders and workers kick-started the campaign from 10,000 locations across Bihar simultaneously.

Kumar personally went about knocking on the doors of several houses in Paschim Darwaja locality of the Patna Saheb Assembly constituency to launch his party's ambitious campaign to reach out to one crore households and meet three crore people.

"Nitish Kumar personally knocked on the doors of several houses in old Patna city and asked people whether they were happy with his development work. He appealed to them to give him another chance," said a JD-U leader, who accompanied the Chief Minister on the door-to-door walk.

Hundreds of JD-U leaders and workers accompanied Kumar during the campaign. State JD-U president Vashisht Narain Singh launched the campaign at the party office.

"JD-U's aim is to reach out to at least three to four crore voters through this campaign. Thousands of party workers and leaders – including ministers, MPs and legislators – have been involved in knocking on people's doors and personally reach out to them," Vashisht Narain Singh said.

This door-to-door campaign is the brainchild of Prashant Kishore, an erstwhile key strategist of Narendra Modi during the last Lok Sabha polls.

Besides, JD(U) on Thursday released its campaign song "Bihar mein bahaar ho, Nitishe Kumar ho" (Let there be prosperity in Bihar, let there be only Nitish Kumar) for the forthcoming Assembly elections.

The song was made public by Vashistha Narayan Singh amid much fanfare.

The song's music has been composed by Sneha Khanwalkar of 'Gangs of Wasseypur' and 'Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!' fame. The songwriter, Raj Shekhar, is known for his lyrics in 'Tanu Weds Manu'. Neeti Mohan and Ghunghroo have lent their voices to the song.

It uses the word 'Nitishe', which in colloquial language means 'only Nitish'.

JD(U) insiders said the song was prepared after a two-and-a-half month research under Kishore's guidance.

The 4.21-minute song has been tailor-made to showcase development works carried out  in Bihar over the past 10 years during Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's regime. 

"The song showcases the development efforts by the government, hints at how the down slide of the state stopped and an upward movement started. It points out the way pride has been brought to Bihar and how there is nobody else like Nitish Kumar," a leader associated with JD(U) poll campaign said.

By connecting 'bahaar' (prosperity) and development with Kumar, the song tries to stymie the BJP, which will definitely bank on its slogan for a change in governance in the coming elections.

Last month, Kumar  had launched a high-tech 'Badh Chala Bihar' initiative (Bihar moving forward) to directly reach out to the masses and seek their ideas and suggestions for the state's development. That too was Kishore's brainchild.

But the state Election Commission (EC) on Saturday suspended the 'Badh Chala Bihar' campaign after the Bharatiya Janata Party complained that it violated the Model Code of Conduct for the biennial elections to the state legislative council and misuse of government funds and resources.