Bihar polls: The curious case of Prashant Kishor

Where is Prashant Kishor?

Once touted as a rising star in Bihar politics, Kishor has been eerily absent from the scene of action in the poll-bound state.

In the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, the poll strategist-turned-politician was lauded for his work with the winning Grand Alliance, then comprising the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress, against the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

The political landscape, however, has since changed. The JD(U), which had left the NDA in 2013, returned to the fold in 2017. Kishor’s political ambition has seen a rollercoaster journey of its own.

Kishor’s whirlwind affair with the JD(U) saw his meteoric rise within the party and witnessed an eventual fall with his expulsion in January this year.

Inducted into the JD(U) in September 2018, Kishor was made the national vice-president of the party within weeks of his entry.

Kishor's expulsion came at the heels of his differences with JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as well as his outrage over the CAA. After Kishor's tweet to Amit Shah protesting the CAA and NRC, an angered Nitish claimed that he had taken Kishor under his wing upon the recommendation of Home Minister and then BJP President Amit Shah, a claim that was refuted by Kishor.

It should be noted that Kishor's claim to fame was the campaign of Narendra Modi in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"My association with various political parties as a strategist is well known. I have never kept it a secret. But I had not joined the JD(U) as an agent of some other party. If speaking a lie makes things easier for Nitish Kumar, then I grant this to a man who is like a father figure to me," Kishor had said at a press conference after his expulsion from the party.

After his exit from the JD(U), Kishor had unveiled the ambitious ‘Baat Bihar Ki’ campaign in February this year which was, in his own words, an “aspirational drive aimed at transforming the state's politics and not an attempt to build a new party.” Both Kishor and his ‘Baat Bihar Ki’ seem to have fallen silent these days.

Talking in the context of the upcoming assembly elections, Kishor wanted the JD(U) to contest more seats as compared to its NDA coalition partner and ally BJP. This had attracted veiled jibes from the BJP camp, especially from Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi who had indirectly accused the former of violating the “coalition dharma”.

What ensued was a Twitter war between the two which ended with Sushil Kumar Modi saying 'jo baat beet gayee so beet gayee' (let bygones be bygones) on January 1, 2020. The sentiment was echoed by JD(U) President Nitish Kumar who maintained and reiterated, "Sab theek hai (all is well)".

Kishor was expelled from the JD(U) on January 29 majorly over the contentious issue of CAA that he had spoken vehemently against. The expulsion had invited a sarcastic 'Thank you' and 'God bless you' from Kishor.

But this wasn’t the first time that Kishor had locked horns with the BJP or with his own party and certainly wasn’t the last, with or without the JD(U) having his back.

CAA, NRC, NPR

Even with his former party JD(U) supporting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, Kishor had spoken strongly against it and taken a defiant stand. He had disapproved of the JD(U) voting in favour of the Bill when it was being passed in the parliament in December 2019.

In combination with the NRC, he had said that it could turn into a "lethal combo in the hands of the government to systematically discriminate and even prosecute people based on religion."

This had added a new layer of friction within the party and with NDA ally BJP.

‘Gandhi vs Godse’

After his expulsion from the JD(U), Kishor had lashed out at Nitish Kumar by dragging in the BJP and invoking the Godse vs Gandhi argument.

"Nitish ji has always said that he cannot leave the ideals of Gandhi, JP and Lohia... At the same time, how can he be with the people who support the ideology of Godse? Both cannot go together. If you want to stay with the BJP, I don't have any problem with it but you cannot be on both sides," Kishore had said during a press conference in February this year.

"There has been a lot of discussion between me and Nitish ji on this. He has his thought process and I have mine. There have been differences between him and me that the ideologies of Godse and Gandhi cannot stand together. As the leader of the party you have to say which side you are on," he added.

Where is Kishor now?

Over the years, Kishor has collaborated with several anti-NDA political leaders like TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu and YSRCP's Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, AAP in Delhi and TMC’s Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, among others, as a poll strategist. He would also be assisting MK Stalin and the DMK in the 2021 Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Even when he was with the JD(U), through his company I-PAC, he had provided professional assistance to the AAP in the Delhi Assembly elections early this year where the JD(U) and other NDA allies like the BJP were in the fray.

More recently, Kishor and his poll team I-PAC have been working closely with Banerjee in West Bengal for the 2021 Assembly elections. The campaign has taken a strong anti-BJP stance.

However, in terms of the Bihar polls, Kishor has been utterly quiet.

His Twitter handle doesn’t have much to offer either. With the last tweet posted on July 20, he hasn’t spoken or shared his views on any of the political developments surrounding the polls. Most of his recent tweets have been on the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown, slamming the Modi government at the Centre and the Nitish government in the state. Not one word on the elections.

Kishor's silence in the Bihar election has definitely had an echo: A murmur asking where is Prashant Kishor?

(With inputs from PTI)