Prashant Kishor begins countdown to party launch, presses ahead with message to Dalits, Muslims

Soon after he had led Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress to a landslide victory in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly polls, Kishor had announced that he was stepping away from political strategizing and would cover the length and breadth of Bihar in a yatra starting October 2, 2022, before a formal plunge into politics.

Since the launch of the Jan Suraaj yatra from West Champaran, Kishor claims to have covered over 5,000 km – travelling through 14 districts on foot and covering another 10 by car. His supporters say they have created a pool of grass-root leaders drawing from this tour, keeping in mind social and regional compositions.

Kishor has claimed that his aim for Jan Suraaj is to create a distinct constituency for his party, in a state that remains among the most backward in the country, and where the dominant parties are the RJD, BJP and JD(U).

Key to that has been Kishor’s appeal to the Dalits and Muslims to stop voting along caste and religious lines, and to keep “the future of their children” in mind.

Since 1990, Bihar has been helmed by leaders who grew out of social justice politics, be it the RJD’s Lalu Prasad and his wife Rabri Devi, or current Chief Minister and JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar.

Incidentally, Kishor’s first foray into politics was via the JD(U), with Nitish appointing him to a senior post soon after he had joined the party. While the relationship fell apart quickly, Kishor realised the appeal of Nitish’s caste politics multiplied with a development pitch.

“Kishor is aware that his own caste identity as an upper caste Brahmin and over-projection of himself as a leader could mar things even before they get off to a start. Hence, he speaks about a rainbow coalition, cutting across castes, religions as well as professional backgrounds,” political analyst Sanjay Kumar says, pointing to his “talent pool, including a good number of teachers and intellectuals”.

Kishor has also attacked the caste survey carried out by a Nitish Kumar-led Mahagathbandhan government as a “political stunt”. “Nitish pitched his campaign on this theme while he was with the INDIA bloc but later joined the NDA. Be it the RJD or JD(U), the parties have been throwing dust in people’s eyes for the last three decades. They should tell people why the conditions of the OBCs, EBCs and SCs have not improved,” he has said.

To the Muslims, his messaging is along similar lines. Recently, at a gathering in Kishanganj, where he announced that the Jan Suraaj party will field 75 EBCs including Muslim EBCs in the 2025 Assembly polls, Kishor told the community: “When will you stop voting for anti-social elements out of fear and start voting for your children’s future?”.

Apart from Kishanganj, Kishor has travelled to Araria and Katihar that also have significant Muslim populations, raising questions about the RJD and JD(U)’s lip-service to Muslims and asking why they have not given the community key positions in government.

To drill his point home, he points out that Muslims make up 17% of the state’s population – 3% more than the Yadavs – but have not had a pan-Bihar leader.

Often accused of being the BJP’s “B-team”, Kishor has sought to shed this tag by announcing that he will contest all the seats in Bihar. The appeal to Muslims also includes a message against the BJP. “Your Prophet clearly says that nothing is achievable without a struggle. You only keep thinking of defeating the BJP or Narendra Modi but do not make concrete efforts towards it. Instead, you wait for some people or leaders to defeat them. Then, after the elections, you keep quiet for five years and again wait for a miracle to happen,” Kishore said at a Muslim gathering in Araria, going on to remind them of the work the BJP has put in compared to this. “The BJP was not made in a day. Modi did not arrive in 2014. He was there for 20 years before that.”

The Jan Suraaj leader has also urged the Muslims and Dalits – which collectively make up 37% of the state’s population – to come together in a common cause.

Dalit leaders have only been “used” by parties, a Jan Suraaj leader says. “Dalit votes are currently scattered as there are individual leaders like Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi. The three Dalit CMs in the state’s history – Bhola Paswan Shastri, Ramsunder Das and Manjhi – were more of place holders rather than figures of authority.”

Another leader adds: “Jan Suraaj will be equidistant from all parties. We want to convince people with our actions.”