Nitish launches high-tech 'Badh Chala Bihar' ahead of assembly polls

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday launched a high-tech 'Badh Chala Bihar' (Bihar moving forward) initiative to directly reach out to the masses and seek their ideas and suggestions for the state's development.

The initiative was launched a day after the Janata Parivar projected him as chief ministerial candidate ahead of the crucial Bihar assembly elections scheduled later this year. It is the brainchild of Prashant Kishore, an erstwhile key strategist of Narendra Modi during the last Lok Sabha polls.

"Our target is to reach out to 40,000 villages across Bihar in the next six to seven weeks for a feedback on the state's development and involve them by seeking their ideas for its development in the next 10 years," Nitish Kumar said at the inaugural function.

The chief minister said that a 'Vision Document 2025' for Bihar would be prepared on the basis of ideas/suggestions from the public.

Nitish Kumar said he wished to inform the people of Bihar about his government's development work in the nearly 10 years of his party's rule in the state.

"My government has delivered development with justice," he said.

The chief minister said that when he came to power in November 2005, Bihar was a power-starved state.

"A severe power crisis prevailed in Bihar then as people in villages and towns lived in the dark without electricity. But this has now changed. Power situation has improved in the last few years," Nitish Kumar said, while admitting that 'power to all' still remainged a big challenge.

He said his government provided free bicycles to thousands of schoolchildren to change state education sector for the better.

"Earlier, girls did not attend school due to poverty. We launched 'free bicycle scheme' for girls and they began to ride to schools in groups, which changed the mindset of Bihar people," the chief minister said.

"I started 'vikash yatra' (development march) in 2009 and since then the government has establaished new indicators of development," he added.

According to officials here, with the formal launch of 'Barh Chala Bihar', a group of IIT and IIM graduates under the leadership of Prashant Kishore will work towards Nitish's victory in Bihar assembly elections.

Prashant's team is split into two. Citizens Alliance - with close to 35 members - is directly working in tandem with the Bihar government to aggressively promote its achievements.

Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) - with 27 members - is working with the JD(U) for data analytics and work the social media in favour of Nitish, an exercise that paid rich dividends during the Modi campaign.

Nearly 400 trucks, equipped with TV sets, music systems, microphones and speakers and led by a 'grass-roots mobiliser', a representative of the team, will move from village to village and showcase Nitish government's achievements. It will be followed by a discussion with the villagers and others.