For months after the Grand Alliance's sweeping victory in Bihar, JDU leader and perennial Prime Ministerial candidate Nitish Kumar has been scouting around to build the Bihar model to take on the BJP and spite the Prime Minister. His first foray, never mind the planned second foray into Varanasi to attend a Kurmi or Patel mahasabha, into Assam to emerge as a deal maker has come a cropper. There, in the world of Kamrup, where legend has it that human beings are turned into birds and other creatures, he tried to play his hands on a bit of tantra and forge an alliance between the Congress and a perfume baron's not-so-democratic pocket organization All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). His calculation, that has gone completely awry because the Congress party has decided to contest solo the 2016 state assembly election, was that by replicating the Grand Alliance model, he would be able to raise his national stature, while at the same time securing for his party a foothold in critical northeastern state. Having been rebuffed by the Congress party, Nitish is now trying, in his usual style, to spite the party. So he has all of a sudden decided to make independent election campaigner Prashant Kishor his adviser on policy and programme implementation with the status of a Cabinet Minister. A notification to this effect was issued on January 21 by Principal Secretary Brajesh Mehrotra of the Bihar government's cabinet department. Whether the responsibility could tie down Kishor to Bihar is a call for the ambitious election strategist to take. For Congress may not be averse to utilizing his services in the Assam election. Written by: M K Shukla (Editor, Indianmandarins.com)