As Bihar politics is poised to a paradigm shift in the Year 2025, will Prashant Kishore emerge as its own Arvind Kejriwal, unseating the Chief Minister with the active support of the BJP?
After the former employee of the UN quit his election managment company I-PAC to achieve his own political dreams instead of helping others, he dug his heels in Bihar, his native state and launched a political party later.
He started attacking the Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on the issues of unemployment, education, “samvida sikshaka” or the contractual teacher and other issues. He carved out a niche place for himself in Bihar politics slowly and gradually.
Prashant Kishore Gets Drubbing
However, PK, as Prashant Kishore is called, got a severe blow in November 2023, when his Jan Suraj Party got a cruel drubbing as all four of its candidates lost in the by-elections held for the Bihar assembly.
While Muhammad Amjad got 17,285 votes at Belagunj, Jitendra Paswan garnered 37,103 from Imamgunj, Shushil Kumar Singh from Ramgarh 6513 and Kiran Devi could get only 5622 votes from Tarari in the by-elections.
Apparently, Prashant Kishore’s appeal to Bihar voters to come out of the vicious cycle of “jaat” and “bhaat” fell on deaf years.
PK Slams Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar, PM Modi
He tried to convince the voters that Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar kept him trapped in the vicious circle of caste politics for long 35 years, while Narendra Modi caught him by offering 5 kg of rice, but none of them had solved any of the real problems like unemployment, backwardness and lack of education.
After the police lathicharged students demanding cancellation of examination conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission last month, PK got an opportunity to reach out to the young generation.
Prashant Kishore Sits On Fast-Unto-Death
He sat on a fast-unto-death in the famous Gandhi Maidan in the capital city of Patna, amid accusation of living in the vanity van stationed near the sprawling ground.
If media reports are to be believed, the high-end air-conditioned vanity van is fitted with all types of modern amenities, it costs Rs 2 crore, and its daily fare is Rs 25 lakh.
Also Read: Will Nitish Kumar Quit NDA Before Bihar Elections 2025 If BJP Sidelines Him?
Coming under scathing attack for luxurious life-style in poverty-striken Bihar, where the masses are so poor that they have been caught by PM Modi for 5 kg of rice, as claimed by none other than Prashant Kishore, he offered to return the vanity van.
PK said that anyone can give him Rs 25 lakh daily and take the vanity van away. He also dared his critics to question the lifestyle of PM Modi.
Bihar Police picked him up on the fifth day of the fast and sent him to jail.
Prashant Kishore Echoes Arvind Kejriwal
However, what Prashant Kishore told journalists on the third day of his agitation, has uncanny similarity to what Arvind Kejriwal told while he was on a similar hunger strike in Delhi in 2011.
Talking to reporters, PK claimed that the no banner of Jan Suraj Party was put on the venue of his sit-in demonstration.
He also offered to withdraw if other political parties take up the issue, he dared Rahul Ganhi and Tejaswi Yadav to take up the cause so that he could to back to the banckground.
He claimed that he had no political ambition and he only wanted the issues of the students be addressed.
These are the words uttered by Arvind Kejriwal with minor changes. He too said that it was a non-political movement, he only wanted the issue of corruption to be addressed.
He too dared Rahul Gandhi to take up the cause so that he could go to the background.
No need to say what happened afterwards.
Is BJP Behind Prashant Kishore?
Political analysts also believe that the BJP and other outfits of the Sangh Pariwar are behind the rise of Prashant Kishore as they were behind Arvind Kejriwal.
The Hindutva outfits want to weaken the ruling JD(U) and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and make deep inroads into the state’s politics before the Bihar Assembly Elections 2025.
The Hindutva brigade and their cahoots plan to corner Nitish Kumar in such a way that he becomes vulnerable, loses more seats in the fortcoming state assembly elections and is left with no locus standi to stkae claim to be the CM of the state.
The same strategy was adopted in Delhi to oust the Congress and Sheila Dixit in the Delhi Assembly Elections in 2013.
However, the saffron party also succeeded in creating an atmosphere where the Congress was seen as the most corrupt party and responsible for all evils in the Indian system.
Is It Bihar’s Own Arvind Kejriwal?
The 2G “scam” became the biggest scandal of the independent India, for which the Congress paid heavy prices, though the Supreme Court gave a clean chit to all concerned in the case years later. The Modi-led government even did not appeal against the verdict.
A similar attempt is a foot, though on a smaller scale. It is not Arvind Kejriwal, it is Prashant Kishore or PK or Bihar’s own Arvind Kejriwal.
