NEW DELHI: Political strategist Prashant Kishor is set to plunge into electoral politics by announcing in October that his party Jan Suraaj will contest all the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar. There is major speculation that the emergence of this third force on Bihar’s electoral scene will disrupt the current status quo, making the alliances of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Janata Dal (United), and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Congress look for better strategies to win the 2025 Assembly elections.
The buzz is that Kishor may win over the upper caste Brahmin vote from the BJP camp. According to a BJP office bearer, long discussions are taking place at their party office about the possibility of Prashant Kishor coming in the way of the saffron camp’s win in Bihar. The BJP leader said, “Brahmins are the traditional vote bank of BJP. And if it slips away from the party, there will be electoral losses. The party could lose more than a dozen seats if even only 15% Brahmin voters leave.”
At the same time, political observers say that any possible ascension of Tejashwi Yadav as Chief Minister post the Assembly elections could change the political dynamics of the state and make it difficult for the saffron camp to expand its electoral territory, thus placing Lalu’s son in a superior position for a longer period of time. Therefore, experts suggest that Kishor may try to create roadblocks for Tejashwi and thus end up damaging the RJD more than the BJP.
The initial assessment of Kishor’s team is that his party could disrupt the elections and get scores of seats, thus hurting both the BJP-led alliance and RJD and company. A leader associated with Kishor said, “Our party will not damage only one party. It will damage all the parties. We are not focusing on any caste when we speak to the public. People from all walks of life are happy to associate themselves with us. Lawyers, engineers, doctors, all have joined politics because they find hope in Kishor.”
However, Bihar is not be an easy state to decode. A state considered to have the highest anti-incumbency, it is believed that more than 30% of the electorate in the state casts their vote not because they think that a particular party will work for the people, but because they do not want the other party to win. Consequently, according to political observers, this could make a considerable chunk of the electorate move towards the new formation. This, if they are convinced that the particular party could free them from political stagnation of the state and lift them up economically.
This is where Kishor’s party could make some headway into Bihar’s power politics. A political analyst said, “Kishor knows the ins and outs of politics. He has worked very hard during his formative years and learned tricks to capture the attention of the public. Therefore if he is successful in projecting himself as bigger political grandee, he could perform very well. The other political parties are trying to undermine him by overlooking him. They are trying to tell the people that he doesn’t have any weight in front of their parties. But he is gaining acceptance among the people.”
Meanwhile, the RJD has issued notice to its leaders asking them not to attend any gathering led by Prashant Kishor’s party. An ex minister and a top RJD leader said to The Sunday Guardian, “Our leaders are trying to avoid mentioning his name, but he could shake up the politics of the state the way Arvind Kejriwal did with Delhi. He has organically reached out to the public. Such kind of communication develops emotional connect between the leaders and the people.”
Kishor’s padayatra in Bihar was aimed at bringing him close to the people and bringing the right people at the grassroots on a democratic platform. The Yatra, according to leaders close to Kishor, has already reached out to 80% of Bihar’s people covering more than 70% of Bihar, thus developing a social network at the grassroots and creating a platform for the party to expand it into a larger political network. A leader said, “Kishor will give 75 tickets to Economically Backward Classes (EBCs). He will break the jinx of caste loyalty in the state. He is trying to create an audience of those people who want development, jobs and education. He is speaking on constructive issues. He will break away a chunk of votes from every party in the state.”