Patna: Come this Gandhi Jayanti, the people of Bihar will see their political palette getting crowded by one more shade. Touted as an alternative to the tried-and-tested parties, the new political outfit, Jan Suraaj, is the brainchild of poll strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor.
Jan Suraaj, meaning 'people's governance', is being launched as a platform that abhors caste, corruption and communalism.
But why now?
Around one year from now, Bihar will be heading towards assembly polls as the term of the present House ends in November 2025. For more than three decades, or, to be more precise, for the last 34 years, two leaders have ruled the state uninterruptedly. Lalu Prasad (including his proxy Rabri Devi) and Nitish Kumar (including his proxy Jitan Ram Manjhi for a few months).
Politically, both Lalu and Nitish are the by-products of the JP movement, also called Sampoorna Kranti (meaning 'total revolution'), launched by the veteran Socialist late Jaya Prakash Narayan in 1974 against the then prime minister Indira Gandhi.
The new generation as well as the older one in Bihar are fatigued by the two JP proteges, who have failed to put the state on the fast track of development, particularly in the fields of education, health and employment.
It is here that Prashant Kishor, popularly known as PK, believes he can fit in the bill just like a rookie RTI activist-cum-politician Arvind Kejriwal did in Delhi ten years back and swept the assembly polls.
But Bihar is not Delhi. Kishor knows this very well, having rubbed shoulders with leaders of the BJP, Congress, JD (U), YSRCP, TMC and the DMK while campaigning for them during the Lok Sabha and assembly elections.
Salient features
Much ahead of launching his political outfit, Kishor deemed it fit to criss-cross Bihar through his padyatra (foot march) in the last two years and interacting with people of all shades. His aides say he has travelled more than 5,000 kilometres since 2022 and is now ready to give shape to his party constitution in which he will incorporate many rules and regulations. But the focus is primarily on three issues.
First, educational qualification. PK wants the candidates who will be contesting the 2025 assembly election on his party's ticket to be at least a matriculate. However, for the time being, this provision has been put on hold for want of consensus.
Second, PK feels there should be a law related to 'right to recall' so that the electorate can recall their public representative if he/she fails to deliver after winning the polls.
Third, PK is of the opinion that if his party is able to form the government in 2025, he will first annul the prohibition law, which has, according to him, caused a huge loss to the exchequer in terms of revenue. He feels the revenue earned after annulling prohibition can be used to streamline the education sector. He insists that such funds won’t be used to furnish the minister's house or for travelling of CM in a helicopter.
Enamoured by his plans, many retired officers, academicians and bureaucrats, including former IPS officer Anand Mishra, have joined the bandwagon. PK’s call looks hunky-dory, at least in theory.
Questions galore
However, the former poll strategist has been charged with inherent contradictions.
"In his every speech, PK says people won't accept a 'ninth-failed' person as their leader, in an apparent dig at RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav. But the fact is it was PK, who, in 2015, played an instrumental role in making the same 'ninth-failed' leader the deputy chief minister, who was then in his mid-20s," opines Ajay Kumar, editor of a leading Hindi daily.
"People may question PK as to why he is questioning Tejashwi's education qualification and not the PM’s. In fact, eyebrows have already been raised as to why PK is targeting Nitish and Tejashwi and is going soft on the BJP," the senior journalist adds hastily.
Another political commentator with an identical name Ajay says PK has promised to give an alternative to the voters of Bihar. "But he is behaving more like Arvind Kejriwal. The way Kejriwal used to say during the Anna movement that he won’t be the CM face, he won't use luxurious cars and will stay in a simple house, we are going to witness a replica of Kejriwal in Bihar," says Ajay.
"People get suspicious of PK when he says he won't be the CM face or he is not lurking for power. His attack on Tejashwi also looks suspicious as it was PK who gave Tejashwi a larger-than-life image when he was a poll strategist, following which he became an adviser to Nitish and eventually the national vice-president of the JD (U). Similarly, PK stood firmly with Nitish when he announced prohibition in Bihar in 2016, but now he is saying he wants to annul the law," the political commentator says.
To buttress his point, Ajay says PK's political credibility is doubtful. And so is his governance ability. "Nitish gave him a Cabinet Minister rank while appointing him to head the Bihar Vikas Mission — the nodal agency which had to ensure implementation of the government's programmes. But he failed to deliver," he opines.
PK, however, remains unfazed. "Let my party be formally announced on October 2. In the next six months, you will find only Jan Suraaj championing people's cause," the former poll strategist avers.