Why Prashant Kishor’s new beginning has created a flutter in Bihar politics

Snubbed by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar a few days back, the leader of Opposition in Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav from the RJ(D), on Monday came down heavily on political strategist Prashant Kishor saying that he is “not a factor in Bihar”.

The leader of opposition has asserted that he took “no notice” of the IPAC founder who last week launched ‘Jan Suraaj’, a quasi-political platform, which according to Kishor might become a full-fledged party contesting elections at a later stage.

Yadav was responding to Kishor’s brutal take on his father Lalu Prasad Yadav, who had ruled the state as chief minister for seven years.

Last week, the Bihar Chief Minister had hit back at Kishor’s assessment of his governance. He said, “I take no notice, ever, of what he (Kishor) says or does. Who is he? He has never been a factor in Bihar”.

BJP Rajya Sabha MP and former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said that Prashant Kishor’s entry will have no impact as there would still be four mainstream political parties in Bihar.

Last week, Kishor announced that he will not be floating a political party as of now and said that he would rather collaborate with anyone who comes ahead and forms one. Kishor’s plan to traverse 3,000 km on foot across Bihar from October 2 to understand the grievances of people has created quite a flutter among the big names in Bihar politics.

“I want to start from zero- I will spend the next three-four years reaching out to people with the idea of Jan-Suraj (public good governance),” he said.

While trying to write off Kishor, both Tejashwi Yadav and Nitish Kumar have shown that whatever the political strategist says holds enough sway to deserve a detailed retort from both the leaders.

Prashant Kishor is not a new name to Bihar. The political strategist’s stint and eventual fallout with the Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is well-known.

Ahead of the high-voltage 2015 Bihar state assembly polls, Kishor and his team at I-PAC managed to stitch a formidable Mahagathbandhan alliance comprising of JD(U), RJ(D) and later on, Congress among many others to thwart a formidable BJP-LJP alliance to hand Nitish Kumar his third term as the Chief Minister with Bihar.

After winning, Nitish Kumar named Kishor as his advisor to implement Nitish Kumar’s seven promises that Kishor had successfully designed for the electorate.

Since 2018, as the vice-president of JDU, Kishor had been virtually second in command after Kumar. However, disagreements over Kumar’s accommodative stance towards ally BJP’s Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register for Citizens eventually led to the suspension and subsequently, parting of ways for Kishor and Kumar.

With Ramvilas Paswan gone and an ageing Kumar, Kishor would look to fill in their vacuum to woo 58% of the state’s young voters.