Janata Dal (United) Vice President and political strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday hit back at Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for calling him a “Bihari dacoit”.

In an election rally at Ongole on Monday, Naidu had claimed that Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was doing “criminal politics”. “He is grabbing the MLAs of Congress and Telugu Desam Party,” Rao alleged, according to ANI.

Calling the political strategist a “Bihari dacoit”, Naidu also claimed that Kishor was involved in getting voters’ names deleted in the state. “There is a consultant from Bihar, PK,” Naidu said, according to News18. “He does surveys, strategies for Jagan [Reddy]. He commits cybercrimes and also get voters deleted. This is not Bihar, this is Andhra Pradesh. If you behave in such a way here, we will chop your tail and send you back.”

Advertisement

Telugu Desam Party leader Adala Prasad Reddy had joined the YSR Congress on March 16. Another Telugu Desam Party candidate, Thota Trimurtulu from Ramachandrapuram in East Godavari district, is also in discussions with the YSR Congress, reports said.

“An imminent defeat can rattle even the most seasoned politicians,” Kishor tweeted in response. “So I am not surprised by such baseless utterances of Chandrababu Naidu.”

The political strategist added that instead of using language which exposes his prejudice against the people of Bihar, Naidu should “just focus on why people of Andhra Pradesh should vote for you again”.

Advertisement

Kishor, who strategised Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign in 2014, had said earlier this month that he was against the manner in which the Janata Dal (United) tied up with the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2017, after withdrawing support to the Rashtriya Janata Dal.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19. However, in Andhra Pradesh, the Assembly polls will also be held simultaneously. There are 25 Lok Sabha seats and 175 Assembly seats in the state.