Prashant Kishor has been the most successful person in the history of the business of election analysis and strategy making. Today the situation is such that if any youth says that he has worked with Prashant Kishore, he gets the job of election management somewhere. Probably no person or organization has had such a reputation as mint coins before. Whereas Prashant Kishore has now entered active politics. He founded the political party by holding a big rally in Patna on Wednesday, October 2, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi. His Jan Suraj campaign has transformed into Jan Suraj Party.
History is witness to the fact that different grounds and different buildings of Patna have been witness to most of the political experiments of independent India. Not much time has passed, just 15 months ago the foundation of the opposition alliance ‘India’ was laid at the Chief Minister’s residence located at 1, Anne Marg in Patna. Although Nitish Kumar, who laid the foundation, later separated from it, the alliance formed there emerged as the strongest opposition in the history of independent India after just one year. The question is whether Prashant Kishor will be able to achieve the same success as the earlier political experiments in Bihar?
A definite answer to this question cannot be given. Even sensible people who have goodwill towards Prashant Kishor i.e. PK and are in 100% agreement with his agenda are also suspicious. Their first question is whether Brahmins will now do politics in Bihar? This question is not random or would not appear wrong at first glance. Because in Bihar, which is the land of Mandal politics, it is naturally considered difficult to win elections without simplifying the caste equations, just on the basis of good ideas or good intentions or good, big promises. But is it impossible?
This also cannot be said. After all, Bihar has voted many times rising above caste equations and compulsions. People have broken caste barriers and cast their votes for the welfare of themselves and their children. People have also been swayed by emotional issues and voted riding on the national wave. Be it 1977 or 1984, 1989 or 2014, in these elections the people of Bihar did not vote considering the caste of the candidate or leader.
There is a need to understand that every time the people of Bihar vote, they do not vote only on the basis of caste. If voting had taken place only on the basis of caste, then how could Nitish Kumar, who came from a caste comprising only three percent of the population, remain the central force in Bihar politics for 20 years? They are not able to win the elections in the first attempt. When people gave him a landslide majority in 2005, it was not because he had created the equation of Luv Kush or because BJP with upper caste and Vaishya votes was associated with him. People also realized the narrative of ‘Jungle Raj’ he had created in Bihar and voted for Nitish Kumar to change it.
In the next election i.e. in 2010, his alliance won 85 percent of the seats in Bihar and that victory was also not the result of any caste equation, rather the people of Bihar liked the good governance of Nitish and voted for him in the hope of positive change. After this election, Nitish Kumar contested the 2015 and 2020 elections purely on caste equation and both times his seats were reduced. In 2020, they became a party with only 43 seats. Think, when they fought in the name of good governance, they won 116 seats and when they fought in the name of equation, they won 71 seats once and 43 seats the second time.
In this electoral history of Bihar, a ray of light is visible for Prashant Kishore. They do not talk about caste, rather they challenge people of all castes and religions to remain captive and vote for one or the other party and those parties did nothing for them. The invitation he sent to the media and others to announce the establishment of his party indicated the principles on which his party would be based. He said that he is venturing to change the system. After thinking very carefully, he did not talk about change of power or about defeating or making anyone win.
They know that if the people of Bihar unite, it will be to change the system because for the last 35 years, almost the same or at most two types of systems have existed in Bihar. The first arrangement was of Lalu Prasad and the second was of Nitish Kumar. Both these leaders have played their respective historical roles and now they have nothing to give to Bihar. So, if people are disillusioned at the level of the system, there is a void at the level of leadership too. Tejashwi Yadav is not able to fill this void because he does not have a new vision and he is not able to give up the attraction of RJD’s Muslim, Yadav vote base.
The second important thing about Prashant Kishor is that he has started his campaign by calling Bihar the land of knowledge. Today the world has a knowledge based economy but Bihar has given up on knowledge decades or centuries ago. People of Bihar talk about Nalanda, Vikramshila or Udyantpuri to show the glory of the past. The reality is that if he had not left the path of education or the path of knowledge, Bihar would not have been in such a plight today. Bihar has been the supreme center of knowledge and education. Students come from all over the world to study at Nalanda University and the gatekeeper tests their talents.
Similarly, when Shankaracharya had reached Prayagraj to Kumaril Bhatt for Shastrartha and Kumaril Bhatt was sitting on the funeral pyre, he had asked him to do Shastrartha with his brother-in-law Mandan Mishra. While giving the address of Mandan Mishra’s house, Kumaril Bhatt had said that the door on which the parrots are reciting scriptures in Sanskrit is the house of Mandan Mishra and Udaya Bharti. Think, what can happen to the people if knowledge disappears from the land where the gatekeeper tests the talent of the students coming from all over the world and where parrots recite scriptures in SanskritPrashant Kishore Bihar is completely free from knowledge. Have set out to try to revive the dried up stream. He can become Bhagiratha who will bring the Ganga of knowledge again to the land of Bihar.
Along with theoretical resolutions, he has also made many political promises. The most important among his promises is to stop migration. He says that in Bihar, the children of those who have money go out to study and the children of those who do not have money go out to earn. Due to migration, Bihar has become a state of old people. Most of the young or working age people have left Bihar. Prashant Kishor promises that he will give pension of Rs 2,000 per month to the elderly and stop migration. He talks to the people of Bihar to vote for their children.
His words are hopeful. Then people from every part of the country and the world reached Patna to attend the establishment ceremony of his party. Keep in mind that just 10 years ago, Arvind Kejriwal’s similar experiment was successful in Delhi. But as soon as this example is given, people say that Bihar is not Delhi. It is true that Bihar is not Delhi but Delhi is mini Bihar. When the people of Bihar have done miracles in Delhi then why can’t they do it in Bihar? There also the wall of caste and religion can fall in the storm of expectations.