Prashant Kishor’s upcoming Jan Suraaj party may contest bypolls in Bihar

Prashant Kishor.
| Photo Credit: PTI

With the next Assembly election in Bihar due in October-November 2025, election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor is likely to test political waters in the upcoming bypolls to four Assembly seats in the State. Mr. Kishor had said that his organisation, Jan Suraaj, which is scheduled to become a political party on October 2 – when Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated – may contest the byelections after getting a party symbol.

“After October 2, when Jan Suraaj will formally be a political party, it may contest the byelections to four vacant seats as Mr. Kishor had announced earlier. The party will soon seek a symbol to contest the byelections,” an office-bearer in Jan Suraaj’s campaign team confirmed to the The Hindu on Thursday (September 5, 2024), while preferring anonymity.

Mr. Kishor is currently undertaking a padayatra (foot march) in Supaul district of north Bihar. “Recently, for two days, Mr. Kishor visited Bhojpur and Kaimur districts to meet members of the campaign and address them”, added the member. Mr. Kishor earlier had announced that Jan Suraaj will officially be launched as a political party on October 2. Two years back, on Gandhi Jayanti Day (October 2), Mr. Kishor had set off on his foot march from Bhitihrwa in West Champaran district and he, so far, has covered over 5,500 km across 18 districts.

Bypolls to the four Assembly seats of Ramgarh, Tarari, Imamganj and Belaganj are due as sitting MLAs of the seats had been elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha election earlier this year. Of the four seats, Ramgarh and Belaganj were won by Rashtriya Janata Dal MLAs Sudhakar Singh and Surendra Yadav respectively in the previous Assembly election. But they vacated the seats after being elected as MPs from from Buxar and Jehanabad seats respectively. Tarari was won by Communist Party of India(Marxist-Leninist) candidate Sudama Prasad, who is now the MP from Karakat. NDA ally and Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, who was MLA from Imamganj seat, stepped down after his election from Gaya Lok Sabha seat. He is currently Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. Dates for the byelections, though, have not been announced yet.

Political analysts have said Mr. Kishor may want to test his political influence by plunging his party into the bypoll fray. “Contesting the byelection may offer a learning experience for Mr. Kishor, who until recently was drawing strategies for different political parties,” they said. The Jan Suraaj member agreed and said, “Yes, you may call it a test for our upcoming political party.”

Mr. Kishor, who in the past had launched scathing verbal attacks on RJD leaders Lalu Prasad and his political heir and younger son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, has often been accused of not being as critical of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. However, on September 3, Mr. Kishor changed tack and took on Mr. Kumar. “If Lalu Prasad-Rabri Devi regime was a case study of administrative ‘jungle raj’, Nitish Kumar’s regime is a case of bureaucratic ‘jungle raj’,” he said.

The RJD leaders, though, have been accusing Mr. Kishor of working as a “B-team of the BJP”. On September 1, several posters in Patna were put up by Jan Suraaj slamming Mr. Prasad for promoting “nepotism” at the cost of other leaders from the Yadav caste. Earlier, Mr. Kishor had remarked that the BJP “has let the ideology of RSS prevail over it”.

“Yes, but he has been very very soft on Nitish Kumar ji and BJP in his attacks”, a senior RJD leader countered while speaking to The Hindu.

Recently while addressing Jan Suraaj members in Patna on September 1, Mr. Kishor announced that his upcoming party would give proportionate representation to Muslims as per strength of their population. He also dared the RJD: “If the party claims to work for the good of Muslim community, it should give Muslims the opportunity to contest election from at least 40 Assembly seats.” Mr. Kishor also announced that Jan Suraaj would give tickets to at least 40 women candidates in Assembly election. “Till 2030, our party will have 70-80 women as leaders”, he added.

“In 2025, the Chief Minister of Jan Suraaj will take oath and the party will be in power. There is no ifs and buts in this”, Mr. Kishor asserted recently..