Prashant Kishor takes a dig at Nitish Kumar for seeking investments in ‘land of Scotch whisky’ – Times of India

PATNA: Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor on Thursday took a dig at Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for his decision to visit Scotland “to explore possibilities of investments” saying he fails to understand how much the “land of Scotch whisky” is going to help the state which has enforced “total liquor ban”. Bihar enforced total prohibition in April 2016.

“Our CM has been regularly talking about liquor ban but to explore investment possibilities, he has gone to Scotland which is famous for Scotch whisky! Nothing can be more ridiculous than this?” Kishor asked while talking to the media in Araria on Thursday. He has been undertaking padyatra across the state for the past over 18 months.

Questioning the logic behind choosing Scotland for seeking investments, Kishor wondered how Nitish didn’t find any other country in the world after 18 years in power. “Nitish’s decision to enforce total prohibition has been incurring a revenue loss of around Rs20,000 crores to the state exchequer every year but he expects big from Scotland,” Kishor wondered.

Kishor claimed Nitish dumped the Grand Alliance only after his prediction that the JD(U) would not win more than five Lok Sabha seats in their company. “But now, I want to make another announcement that the JD(U) will win a maximum of 20 seats in the 2025 assembly elections in the state whether it fights as part of the NDA or Grand Alliance,” Kishor declared, adding Nitish had been passing through the last phase of his political career. “Bas kuchh mahine ki rajniti bachi hai,” he claimed.

Slamming Kishor for such a statement, JD(U)’s national spokesperson Rajib Ranjan said the former doesn’t know anything about Bihar and its current CM. “He is making such statements towards a CM who has changed the entire scenario of Bihar through his initiatives and actions. That means either Prashant Kishor has no vision or doesn’t know anything about the state,” Ranjan said.

Talking about the Parivarvad (dynastic rule),the poll strategist said no party, as such, is left with this malaise. “The people from only 1,250 families in Bihar have been able to become MP or MLA in the past 30 years while a total of 3.5 crore families stay here,” he explained.

Explaining his statement, he said the BJP has currently chosen as its state president Samrat Choudhary who happens to be the son of Shakuni Choudhary—the person who served as a minister in the Congress, RJD and NDA governments in the state. “And what was strange, the BJP too didn’t find any other than Shakuni’s son for its state president,” Kishor asked