prashant kishor (image: wikipedia)
When Prashant Kishor in a series of interviews in May 2024 predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance’s tally would surpass 400-seats in the Lok Sabha election many independent political observers questioned his neutrality, while some others went on to dub him as a Modi-bhakt (loyalist). Yet the truth is that a year later his campaign and speeches appear to be damaging the poll prospect of the NDA more than that of Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. Ahead of the Assembly election due in October-November He too is contributing to the creation of an anti-incumbency environment.
The compulsion with him in poll-bound Bihar is that apart from dynastic rule and educational qualification of opposition’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Prasad Yadav he has little to speak against Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and Left parties as they are not in power. In contrast the NDA, which has been ruling the state for the last two decades and the Centre for more than 11 years, has to be more accountable. Since a generation has come up the criticism against the 15-year rule of Lalu Yadav-Rabri Devi is not cutting much ice. The masses are eager to listen to the failures or achievements of the present government and not what had happened at the turn of the century.
As Prashant Kishor is no longer in the business of promoting any political party for which his organization was paid for and had on October 2 last floated his own Jan Suraaj Party, he is working day in and day out to carve out his own political space. The ruling combination in Bihar is a bit jittery as a sizable section of its vote-bank is turning up to listen to PK’s speeches as they have become somewhat disillusioned with the 20-year long rule. Even the ardent admirers of the chief minister admit that Nitish Kumar is not in the best of health to lead any more. With no formidable face in the NDA camp to counter Tejashwi, many of its voters see some qualities in the Jan Suraaj Party chief. At least till recently he was considered “our own man” by many in the BJP and JD (U) eco-system. What is worrying for the NDA is that he has won over several of its prominent faces. Two-time (2004-2014) BJP MP from Purnea, Uday Singh, alias Pappu Singh, is the first national president of the Jan Suraaj Party. Singh comes from a prominent political-cum-bureaucratic family and is a Rajput, with 3.45% population, is numerically the second strongest upper caste in the state.
Diplomat-turned-politician Pawan Verma, former general secretary of The Janata Dal (United) is the chief national spokesman of Jan Suraaj Party.
Prashant Kishor is a Brahmin from Buxar district of Bihar. Till the advent of Lalu Prasad in 1990 Brahmins use to dominate the political scene in the state. Yet in the last 35 years of post-Mandal era, of the four upper castes, they have witnessed maximum political marginalization, though they, with 3.65% are the biggest upper caste group. Contrary to this Rajput, Bhumihar (2.87%) and Kayastha (0.60%) managed to carve out their place in the BJP and JD (U).
So, there is no dearth of upper caste-men, especially Brahmins, who see him as a “lambi race ka ghoda” (a marathon race horse).
PK has attracted several retired bureaucrats and military officers towards his party. Usually, hailing from the middle-class, they love to join the BJP, but something different is happening in Bihar in recent months.
However, he suffered a sort of setback when Anand Mishra, a former IPS officer, quit Jan Suraaj Party and returned to the BJP last month. Mishra, 2011 batch IPS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre, who resigned a few months before the 2024 Lok Sabha poll, contested as an Independent candidate from Buxar as the saffron party denied him ticket at the final moment. He then switched over to Jan Suraaj Party, but after a brief stay there he came back to the BJP.
Of late PK has been vehemently attacking Bihar chief minister and his ministerial colleagues for corruption and loot and collapse of law and order machinery. He is not sparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi either and has been repeatedly charging that Bihar and other states are being siphoned off and factories are being set up in Gujarat with their wealth. Not only that Modi would come to seek votes in Bihar though his policies have rendered lakhs of Biharis jobless, therefore, they are forced to migrate and made to work for pittance in his state.
PK is devastating in his attack on Nitish Kumar government’s prohibition policy, and at the same time has been blaming him and Narendra Modi for rampant unemployment in Bihar. He has been accusing both of them of wasting so many years they had got to bring investment and industries to the state.
On August 8 Prashant Kishor launched a direct allegation against Bihar BJP president Dilip Jaiswal and said that he gave Rs 25 lakh to health minister Mangal Pandey, himself a senior party leader, to earn some favour for a private medical college in Kishanganj district. Jaiswal is one of its trustees. PK also alleged a multi-crore scam in the purchase of 1,200 ambulances by the health department in Bihar.
On July 15 he termed the special intensive revision of voters’ list as “a BJP conspiracy” and went on to add that the NDA would lose in spite of this exercise by the Election Commission.
The problem with the BJP and JD (U) top brass is that they are unable to counter the charges levelled against them by Prashant Kishor in the manner in which they are hitting back at the RJD and Congress. This is obviously because he had not ruled the state and also because he was still sometimes back associated with them. Thus, whatever he is saying during his tours of Bihar is getting acceptance.
However, the challenge with former election strategist is that unlike RJD and Left parties, especially CPI ML (Liberation) as well as the BJP he has very few committed cadres, though he has raised his own team, mostly tech-savvy fresh university graduates. He has made WhatsApp groups, floated youth clubs and has two years back undertaken a state-level ‘padyatra’ to all the nooks and corners of the state. Since he had worked as the vice president of Janata Dal (United) for about one and a half years (2018-2020) and as election strategist helped Modi become Prime Minister in 2014, he knows their weaknesses and strong points. The advantage with him is that he is getting more media space than he deserves. This is bound to cause uneasiness in the NDA camp.
As the NDA, with 125 seats in the House of 243, managed to win by a wafer-thin majority in 2020 Assembly election, it would be in trouble if Jan Suraaj Party succeeds in cutting into a small percentage of its votes.
It needs to be reminded that, unlike now, Nitish Kumar was in the pink of health then.
This post was last modified on September 8, 2025 8:48 pm