Prashant Kishor boards 90s’ club for poll swing
Image credit X.com @JanSuraaj
Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party aims to take Bihar politics pivot
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, August 23: Election strategist Prashant Kishor is aiming to be a disruptor in Bihar politics. There is a clear churn taking place in the Bihar politics on two fronts – sub-division of caste politics and growing disenchantment of a class of voters with mainstream political outfits.
As many as two per cent of the total voters who actually turned out at polling booths in the Lok Sabha elections rejected all the political parties. A total of 2.07 per cent of Bihar voters pressed the NOTA (None of the Above Buttons) in Bihar a few months ago.
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The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) commanded the largest vote share in Bihar in the Lok Sabha elections with 22.14 per cent. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came close with 20.52 per cent vote share.
“Bihar politics is now at crossroads. The hallmark of the Lok Sabha elections was low turnout of the voters. An air of apathy against mainstream political parties is blowing in Bihar,” said a former Congress leader, who had narrowly lost Lok Sabha elections in 2019. He has now joined the Jan Suraaj Party.
“Dozens of IAS, IPS, and others have joined the Jan Suraaj Party. Professionals from diverse fields are joining Kishor’s party,” he added.
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A cursory look at profiles of the people joining the Jan Suraaj Party suggests that the 90s’ Club is at the centre stage. The 90s’ generation had been instrumental in a major exodus of the youth out of Bihar.
Kishor is making migration as his electoral pivot. “Kishor has covered the length and breadth of Bihar in a manner in which none of the political leaders has seen the state. He will be a disruptor in the Bihar politics,” said a journalist who quit 20-year of journalism to join the Jan Suraaj Party.
Kishor has already created a cadre of foot soldiers. He has a team at each of the polling booth in Bihar. Except for the BJP, no political party commands a dedicated team of committed workers at all the polling booths.
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“In an interaction during induction, I asked him, how will he be able to match the scale of the established parties in Bihar. His reply was – Narendra Modi was just a Gujarat-based leader. In a short span of time, of a few months, he had dwarfed the likes of Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitely, and others in popular appeal. I was the architect of his image building. I know the art and the skill,” shared another professional who has recently joined the Jan Suraaj Party.
The Bihar Assembly elections are still more than a year away. But Kishor has already done his arithmetic.
The Jan Suraaj Party is ready with caste and community equations. A Dalit will be the CM face of Kishor’s party.
The maverick strategist will not take lead role in the organisation. “His experiment cannot be compared with Aam Aadmi Party. His doing something different that none has done. Just wait for a few months, and you will begin picking signals of new politics,” said another professional who has joined the Jan Suraaj Party.
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