New Delhi: Poll consultant-turned-politician Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) seems to be in for a disappointment as it is struggling to make its presence felt in the initial rounds of counting.
The JSP contested 238 of Bihar’s 243 assembly seats. PK maintained all along that his party would either be on “arsh” or “farsh”—either winning 150 seats or drawing a blank. Kishor’s campaign was centred on migrants as he promised that lakhs of those who came home from other states for chhatt would not have to go back for Rs 10,000-12,000 per month if the JSP came to power.
According to early trends, the JSP was trailing in all 238 seats at 11.40 am.
Months after exiting a career in political consulting in 2021, Kishor had launched the Jan Suraaj Padyatra on 2 October 2022, covering thousands of villages across Bihar over the next two years. Two years later, on 2 October 2024, Kishor launched his party Jan Suraaj Party.
Making corruption one of the party’s main poll planks, Kishor targeted the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar in its first electoral test. Kishor also aggressively campaigned for his party, accusing several leaders in the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-Janata Dal (United) alliance of corruption.
Ahead of the polls, Kishor had campaigned across the state conducting public rallies as well as roadshows which drew sizeable crowds. However, many had pointed out that while the party had managed to create a buzz on the ground, voters remained sceptical about voting for the new entrant. With elections getting polarised between the two principal alliances—NDA and Mahagathbandhan—towards the end of the campaign, the JSP was fighting to convert the buzz around PK into votes.
The Jan Suraaj leader who had made it a point to position his party as the ‘third alternative’ had urged people to think beyond ‘caste politics’ and choose a ‘clean’ government.
His charge against top BJP and JD(U) ministers in Bihar had created quite a buzz as he levelled serious allegations against three senior Bihar BJP leaders—Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Dilip Jaiswal, and Mangal Pandey.
He also targetted the JD(U) as he made claims against Bihar Rural Work Minister Ashok Choudhary, considered close to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
Even as many were expecting Kishor to take the plunge into electoral politics, he did not contest the assembly elections pointing out that it was a decision taken collectively by the party leadership.
The party’s candidate list had also drawn a lot of public interest as it included several professionals including lawyers, doctors and academics, including former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer R.K. Mishra, who contested from Darbhanga, while renowned mathematician K.C. Sinha was fielded from the Kumhrar seat.
The party had its fair share of drama as days before the elections, Kishor alleged that three of his party’s candidates had withdrawn their nominations because of pressure from the BJP.
Days before the polls, Kishor addressed a press conference, and alleged that in the case of Danapur, Jan Suraaj candidate Akhilesh Kumar alias Mutur Shah was detained by the BJP and prevented from filing his nomination. The candidate, he said, was kept the entire day with senior BJP leaders, including Amit Shah.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
Also read: Is Prashant Kishor the Kejriwal of Bihar? Yes, but not really