Bihar: Why is Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Abhiyan’s Key Target RJD, Lalu Prasad?

Patna: Following in the footsteps of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal-United (JD-U), election strategist-turned political activist Prashant Kishor, who is trying to emerge as a new political force in Bihar ahead of next year’s Assembly polls, has also been targeting opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), its chief Lalu Prasad and his family.

Kishor, convenor of Jan Suraj Abhiyan (JSA), an outfit floated by him, has been aggressively attacking Tejashwi Yadav, former deputy chief minister and Leader of Opposition, who is widely considered Lalu’s heir-apparent. So far, it appears that Kishor is by and large soft toward BJP and JD-U, as his focus is on attacking RJD.

The latest example of this is the appearance of colourful posters in the name of Aparna Yadav, an active member of JSA in Patna, directly targeting Lalu Prasad and family.

Interestingly, Kishor has chosen a woman JSA member belonging to the Yadav community, an OBC or Other Backward Classes member, to target Lalu Prasad and family, on similar lines  as RJD’s traditional political rivals BJP and JD-U.

Kishor, the brain and face behind yet to be launched political party -- Jan Suraj -- has repeatedly claimed that the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls would witness a direct fight between his party and BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and that his party will form the next state government. But his political strategy to target RJD instead of BJP-JD-U, has exposed the dichotomy and raised many eyebrows in political circles here.

There is a view that if Kishor is so confident about his “main fight” with NDA, why he is targeting RJD and Lalu Prasad?  “This reveals the double face of Prashant Kishor, who is saying one thing and doing. He is overrated and so far, a novice in realpolitik, and has no record to prove anything, His statements and work show clearly that NDA is not his main enemy. He has been using all his energy to damage RJD, which is the main ally in the opposition INDIA bloc,” political analyst Satyanarayan Madan told NewsClick.

Madan further said that Kishor was nothing but “a pawn of BJP”, which is eyeing to split the social support base of the Opposition in Bihar ahead of next year’s Assembly polls. “Politics on the ground is totally a different game. Kishor may be a successful election
strategist, but he is new to politics and he is still far away from success in electoral politics. Going by political trends in Bihar, he might end up as a zero,” he added.

Another political commentator, D M Diwakar, recalled that it was none other than Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who is president of JD-U now, who once stated that he had inducted Kishor in JD-U on the recommendation of senior BJP leader Amit Shah. This itself reflects who he is close to.

“In May and June, Kishor predicted that BJP will get a comfortable majority in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but he was proved wrong. Kishor played for BJP but missed
a sixer. He will never attack and counter BJP,” said Diwakar, former director of A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies, Patna.

Both Madan and Diwakar said that Kishor’s agenda was clearly to dent the social support base of RJD among Muslim-Yadav and Dalits.

Kishor has announced that he will give 70 tickets to Muslims in the Assembly polls, but he has not yet announced how many tickets he will give to upper castes and EBCs (extremely backward castes), the main support base of BJP and JD-U.

However, there are reports that Kishor’s recent move to formally enter electoral politics “with a difference” is getting response from people, which has reportedly worried top leaders of the ruling NDA as well as opposition RJD. This was reflected last month when RJD issued a warning to its workers and leaders against joining JSA. Also, JD-U leaders have been vigorously
countering Kishor in recent weeks.

Kishor’s much hyped Jan Suraj Abhiyan (campaign) is set to become a political party formally on October 2, 2024, on the birth anniversary of Mahatma
Gandhi. However, his “tall claims” are not being taken seriously by the ruling and opposition leaders, as also political watchers, who think he has no experience as a political leader on the ground.

For a short span, Kishor, once considered close to Nitish Kumar, had joined the ruling JD-U. He was appointed vice president of the party. But his innings in JD-U ended sooner rather than later. After that, Kishor reportedly tried to join Congress, which failed to materialise.

However, now, Kishor is fully focusing on the Bihar Assembly polls and has been holding meetings with different social groups on a daily basis. Upbeat over the response, he has been repeatedly telling JSA members and supporters that their party “will be number one
in the state.”

Kishor’s simple political theory is based on his observation that political innings of Nitish Kumar, who is president of JD-U, is in its last stage, and the RJD, led by Lalu Prasad, will not be a force to reckon with. He has publicly announced that JD-U will not get more than 20 Assembly seats in next year’s polls.

Interestingly, all the non JD-U parties, including its ally BJP, and opposition RJD, have no clear cut stand on total prohibition (sharab-bandi) in Bihar, but Kishor recently announced that he would lift prohibition or the ban on liquor within one hour if his party came to power.

After his promise to end prohibition, a political watcher wondered whether Kishor enjoyed the support of the pro-liquor lobby, which has been demanding lifting of  prohibition, and funding his political ambition.

There is also speculation doing the rounds among people about his funding sources, as he has been hiring workers, leaders and organising one big event after another in Patna and in district headquarters across the state.

“Who is funding Kishor is a big mystery so far. There are many stories about the huge money that he has been spending to run his Jan Suraj Abhiyan,” Amit Kumar, an election strategist here, said.

Is Kishor really emerging as a force in caste-ridden Bihar politics, or are his claims mere day-dreaming?  This will become clear sooner rather than later.

The writer is a freelance journalist based in Patna.