Prashant Kishor gets foot into Bihar Legislative Council; BJP too gains at Grand Alliance’s expense

The constituency includes the districts of East and West Champaran, Siwan, Saran and Gopalganj, and has remained a happy hunting ground for the CPI. Anand is the son of teachers’ union leader Kedar Pandey, who enjoys big influence among government school teachers in the constituency.

Although Kishor’s political opponents have quickly dismissed the result as “insignificant” and “tokenism”, Kishor, who is yet to float a political party, has quickly claimed success. He told reporters: “People would often say Champaran is a BJP stronghold, while Saran and Gopalganj are RJD forts. But the result of the Saran teachers’ constituency speaks of the changing mood of the people. We are yet to form a political party, but already we’re being called ‘vote katuwa (vote cutters)’. I’d rather say it’s the people who have started to reject both the BJP and the MGB parties (RJD, JD-U, Congress and Left).”

He added that Congress needs a big rethink on its politics, as voters in Bihar are barely talking about Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

Polls were held in five constituencies — Kosi (teachers), Saran (graduates), Saran (teachers), Gaya (graduates) and Gaya (teachers). The BJP, which earlier held only the Gaya (graduates) seat, retained it, with its candidate Awadhesh Narayan Singh defeating MGB candidate Punit Singh. A JD(U) leader, Punit is the son of RJD state president Jagdanand Singh, making this a prestige fight for the MGB. The BJP also gained the Gaya (teachers) seat, defeating the JD(U)’s incumbent MLC, Sanjeev Shyam Singh, with another Jan Suraj-backed Independent, Abhiram Sharma, coming third.

The JD(U) retained its two other seats, with Dr V N Yadav defeating the BJP’s Mahachandra Singh from Saran (graduates) and Sanjeev Singh retaining the Kosi (teachers) seat against the BJP’s Ranjan Singh. The MGB, which earlier held four seats — three with the JD(U), one with the CPI — could win only two seats this time. By gaining one MLC seat, the BJP has now become the largest party in the 75-member Legislative Council, with 24 seats to the JD(U)’s 23.

Later, JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar said: “Isn’t Prashant Kishor the one who used to talk about making PMs and CMs? Now, he seems to be stuck with one MLC seat, which the candidate won because of his hard work, and little bit of support from a local leader.”

BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand said: “What should we say about Prashant Kishor? Ghalib dil behlane ke liye khayal achha hai (If it makes him happy, so be it). MLC polls are very technical, and too much should not be read into these.” RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari also said the MLC poll results did not mean much, and added that his party was not interested in reacting to Kishor’s claims.

Jan Suraj Abhiyan media in-charge Om Prakash said: “Kishor, accompanied by a few regulars, has so far walked about 2,300 km in his Abhiyan, with hundreds of locals joining them in each leg. They have covered the districts of West Champaran, East Champaran, Sheohar, Gopalganj, Siwan and Saran.” With 32 districts left, he is likely to complete his padyatra across the state by next February, with indications that he would float his political party after that, closer to the 2024 general elections.