Jan Suraaj Party pitches Prashant Kishor as Bihar's ‘most popular' CM pick - a look at its poll strategy

The Hindu

13 hours ago

'Declare Nitish Kumar as the Chief Minister candidate if he is the face of the NDA,' challenged Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor on May 30, as he toured the state in his 'Bihar Badlav Yatra'. Mr. Kishor, a political strategist, who was instrumental in strategising several political campaigns, including those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar, is setting himself up as a third alternative in Bihar beside the Mahagathbandhan (RJD-Congress-Left) and the National Democratic Alliance (BJP-JDU-LJP).
Speaking to The Hindu, on Thursday (June 5, 2025), JSP working President Mr. Manoj Bharti pitched Mr. Kishor as a potential CM candidate. 'He is the most popular choice for CM in Bihar. The whole country and Bihar should forget about Nitish Kumar in the coming election. There is just no way that he can be in any position to drive anything in the next government. We are not going to form any coalition with anyone before or after polls. We will not join anyone just for the sake of forming a government,' says Mr. Bharti.
Since October 2022, Mr. Kishor has been touring Bihar on foot, highlighting key issues like unemployment, migration, and inflation in the State, spanning 5000 kilometres across 17 districts. Two years later, he launched the 'Jan Suraaj Party' with a 'human first' approach, aiming to build a Bihar where 'people from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Haryana and Punjab come in search of work.'
Within days, his new party's popularity among the masses was tested. While JSP failed to open its accounts in the November 2024 by-polls held for four seats – Ramgarh, Belaganj, Imamganj and Tarari— Mr. Kishor expressed satisfaction with polling 10% of the total votes in these seats.
Here's a look at Jan Suraaj's origins, journey, objectives and poll strategy.
Prashant Kishor's Bihar journey
Prashant Kishor has been active in strategising poll campaigns since 2012. After successfully aiding Mr. Modi in his re-election as Gujarat CM in 2012 and later in 2014 as Prime Minister, Mr. Kishor first forayed into Bihar in 2015. Bringing rivals Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar together as the 'Mahagathbandhan,' Mr. Kishor was instrumental in limiting BJP to a mere 58 seats in the 243-member Assembly.
Despite Mr. Kumar's shifting loyalties, he retained Mr. Kishor as his political advisor, even appointing him JD(U)'s vice-president and his potential 'successor.' However, Mr. Kishor's stint with JDU came to an end in 2020 after he vociferously opposed the party's support for the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). Expelled from JDU in January that year, Mr. Kishor launched 'Baat Bihar Ki' — a campaign to attract people to help him find Bihar its 'rightful place among top 10 States of India in next 10-15 years.'
In the following two years, Mr. Kishor hit the ground with his 'Baat Bihar Ki' campaign, undertaking a padyatra across the State. Targetting Mr. Kumar for the poverty in Bihar, he claimed that the NDA's 15-year regime had brought no development to the state. As a caste survey was done across Bihar, Mr. Kishor questioned why Mr. Kumar had not increased the reservation limit, disbursed financial aid to poor and homeless families, or handed over land rights to Dalit farmers. JSP has promised to decide on the implementation of these promises once it forms government.
In October 2024, Mr. Kishor announced the launch of JSP based on five principles, including a one-year tenure for its party president and two years for its council members, and selection of poll candidates in a process similar to the primaries held by parties in the United Statess. JSP has promised to announce initial nominees in March and the final candidate for every seat by November. The party has promised to advocate for the 'Right to Recall' system for public representatives and to display both Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar on their official flag.
JSP's entry was opposed by RJD, which accused Mr. Kishor of acting as a 'B-Team of BJP.' Seeking to frame Mr. Kishor's entry as a ploy to pit the OBCs and the upper castes against each other, RJD MP Misa Bharti said, 'Who is Prashant Kishor Pandey? Pandeys have this business of abusing Yadavs.' In response, Mr. Kishor chose Madhubani-born Manoj Bharti, a former diplomat and a Dalit, as the party's first working president, promising to build a developed Bihar.
JSP's electoral performance
In November 2024, JSP faced its first electoral test as it fielded candidates for the by-elections in Tarari, Ramgarh, Belaganj and Imamganj, as their MLAs were recently elected to Lok Sabha. In Tarari, JSP fielded Kiran Singh against BJP's Vishal Prashant — son of baahubali (strongman) Narendra Kumar Pandey — and CPI-ML's Raju Yadav. BJP managed to wrest the seat from CPI-ML, while JSP finished a distant third with 5622 votes. In Ramgarh, JSP fielded Sushil Singh Kushwaha against BJP's Ashok Kumar Singh and RJD's Ajit Kumar Singh in a bid to woo the Kushwaha community and capitalise on the division of votes. However, BJP managed to wrest this seat too from RJD as JSP finished fourth with 6513 votes.
In Belaganj, which has a sizable Muslim and Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) population, JSP fielded Mohd. Amjad against two heavyweights — Vishwanath Kumar Singh of RJD and Manorama Devi of JDU. Mr. Kishor's gamble failed as JDU's Manorama Devi, wife of baahubali Bindi Yadav, trumped Mr. Amjad by a margin of 56,049 votes. In Imamganj, JSP fielded Jitendra Paswan, a well-known pediatrician from the area, against Deepa Santhosh Manhi of NDA ally Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), who is the daughter-in-law of party chief Jitan Ram Manjhi. Mr. Paswan failed to dent Ms. Manjhi's vote share as he polled 37,103 votes.
In the wake of the poll drubbing, former MPs Devendra Prasad Yadav and Monazir Hassan quit the party. However, Mr. Kishor remained undeterred, making a slew of promises to be fulfilled if voted to power – lifting prohibition and spending the liquor tax revenue on education, offering low-interest loans to working class with better disbursal, and providing a monthly pension of ₹2000 for senior citizens. JSP has also promised land reforms and easy loans to women with the State government providing the required guarantee.
JSP also received a boost after Nitish Kumar's estranged aide R.C.P Singh merged his outfit Aap Sabki Awaz party with it on May 18, 2025. Mr. Singh, a former IAS officer known for his booth-level organisational skills in the JDU, fell out with Mr. Kumar and was removed from the Union Cabinet in October 2024. He has since then been a harsh critic of Mr. Kumar, calling Bihar's bifurcation and the prohibition a mistake.
'According to some estimates, almost ₹20,000 crore of tax revenue from liquor is not being utilized. Prohibition is only on paper. Liquor is not available in shops but is available for home delivery. Anyone who wants to consume it can get it at a premium price. A huge section of officers are earning ill-gotten money through corruption and in the name of stopping liquor sale, half of the police force is trying to control it and trying to have a piece of the cake,' explains Mr. Bharti.
Factors affecting JSP's strategy and its prospects
The passage of the Waqf (Amendment) Act, 2025, during this year's Parliamentary Budget Session gave rise to questions about the potential impact on the polls in Bihar, where Muslims make up around 18% of the population. According to a Lokniti-CSDS survey, the Mahagathbandhan has cornered the Muslim votes in the past three decades. In 2005, the Mahagathbandhan cornered 40% of the Muslim vote, while NDA polled only 4% of the community's votes.
In subsequent elections (2010, 2015 and 2020), Nitish Kumar's shifting loyalties have swayed the Muslim vote towards either coalition. With the NDA, JDU helped the coalition by polling 21% support from Muslims, while RJD polled 32% of the Muslim votes, and Congress, which did not ally with the RJD, got 22% votes. In 2015, JDU allied with RJD and cornered the support of 69% of Muslims, while NDA got only 6% of the community's vote share. Five years later, 76% of Muslims voted for the RJD-Congress combine while only 5% of Muslims supported the NDA.
The Lokniti-CSDS survey concluded that the JD(U)-BJP alliance has never been a primary choice for Muslim voters, making a significant electoral shift unlikely in 2025.
'There is little reason for the NDA to worry in Bihar,' mused Lokniti-CSDS analysts in a column in The Hindu, dismissing JSP's impact in these polls. However, Mr. Bharti disagrees.
'We have a selection process which entails feedback from the ground from the village level, from the block level, from the division level before evaluating candidates. Per seat, atleast 5-10 potential candidates have been nominated of which one will be chosen,' he says. The party is following the same pattern to identify candidates as that used by political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) —an organisation founded by Mr. Kishor.
Instead of castes, JSP has divided Bihari society into five broad classes – forward, backward, extremely poor, Muslims and Dalits. 'Based on their percentage in the population, as per the caste census that was done in Bihar, we will distribute tickets for all 243 seats. For example, Muslims constitute 18-19%, so they will be given 40 seats,' says Mr. Bharti. When asked if a Muslim candidate will be chosen in a Muslim-majority constituency, he says, 'Yes, that will be the main criteria.'
Mr. Kishor has hinted at his own poll debut from Raghopur. The seat has been held by Lalu Yadav's chosen heir, Tejashwi Yadav, since 2015. Not ruling out a potential clash between Mr. Kishor and the RJD scion, Mr. Bharti says, 'Mr. Kishor has said that he has no problem fighting from any seat the party decides, including Raghopur. He is not afraid of fighting anyone from anywhere.' Raghopur, which falls under the district of Vaishali, has a sizable population of Rajputs in the Yadav-dominated region, opening avenues for the JSP to split the upper caste vote in the seat.