West Champaran, Bihar: In the remote village of Bairia, 250 kilometres away from the Bihar capital, a large crowd gathered Friday to listen to a neta with no political party or upcoming election to contest. This was one of the stops of the day on former poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj (people’s good governance) Yatra.
Kishor’s 3,500-km padyatra began on 2 October from Gandhi Ashram in West Champaran district’s Bhitiharwa, where Mahatma Gandhi launched the first satyagraha movement in 1917. The move is being dubbed a precursor to his entry into Bihar politics.
Kishor plans to go from village to village in his home state over the next 12-15 months. ThePrint followed his journey for three days, from Bairia to Bhangaha in West Champaran.
He begins every address by inviting villagers to speak about their problems. In Bairia, they raised the issue of there being no hospital within a radius of 30 km.
“You must be thinking what this politician is doing here when there are no elections around the corner,” he asked the crowds in three villages — Bairia, Bajra and Damrapur — on 7 October. He went on to say that he is not here for votes but rather to understand their problems and change the way seasoned politicians have treated them.
In Bajra, Kishor claimed that the “media says that whoever Kishor has joined in the last 10 years has won the elections”, but asserted that he won’t work for other political parties and leaders anymore.
Speaking to ThePrint Sunday in Bhangaha, he said, “We could have completed the padyatra in six months. We chose to do it for over a year to make sure our message reaches deep into the villages.”
The yatra’s message, he explained, has three focus points — sahi log (the right people), sahi soch (the right thoughts) and samuhik prayaas (collective action).
He added that there are currently three targets: “One, transferring the message organically. Second, transferring the message to the deepest pockets of villages. Third, the right message should be transferred.”
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Attacks on Modi, Nitish
Kishor’s past associations with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) and the Congress have not spared them from his scathing critique as he vies to emerge as an alternative.
“You voted for Modi ji, didn’t you,” he asked a gathering of villagers in Chauhatta on 8 October. The response was in the affirmative. “Now next time you go and press the lotus [the BJP’s election symbol], the gas will go to Rs 2000 from Rs 1,200, petrol and diesel will become Rs 200 per litre. Modi doesn’t care. He knows you will vote again in the name of Hindu-Muslim, nationalism and a missile on Pakistan,” he claimed.
Kishor also raised the issue of Bihar being sidelined in multiple villages on 7 and 8 October. “Even though Gujarat only had 26 BJP MPs, Modi ji became Prime Minister. We [Bihar] sent 39 BJP MPs, but we didn’t get anything,” he said, switching from Hindi to Bhojpuri.
“Ahmedabad gets a bullet train project worth Rs 1 lakh crore and here in [Bihar’s] Narkatiaganj, we can’t even have a proper railway line?” added the poll strategist.
In Bajra Friday, Kishor said Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav had only studied till class 9 but is “aspiring to become CM”, but “if your son studies up to class 9, he might not even get a job as a peon”.
The next day, in Damrapur, he announced, “When Nitish Kumar [current Bihar CM] lost the 2014 elections, he came to me. I made him win the next election. Now he accuses me of being with the BJP. He is the one who turned coats and joined them.”
Villagers from Chauhatta heard him target RJD president Lalu Prasad Yadav. “During Lalu’s time, criminals used to loot in the night, in Nitish’s time, the administration looted during the day. That is the only difference between the two,” alleged Kishor.
On the Citizenship Amendment Act, he said, “I was the one who fought the BJP, with Mamata Banerjee, on the issue of CAA.”
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Living in a tent, listening to the people
Speaking to ThePrint, a villager who attended Kishor’s speech in Bhangaha said, “Baat toh sahi keh raha hai. Badlav ka samay aa gaya hai (What he is saying is right. Time for change has come).”
Kishor lives in a tent, along with other padyatris, in the villages he visits. There is no security team surrounding him and at every stop, he listens to the villagers’ problems and addresses gatherings of people from different backgrounds.
He speaks mainly in Bhojpuri, sometimes switching to Hindi. He has pledged, at every address, that until he tours the entirety of Bihar, he will not go home nor step into a vehicle. He added that this is subject to his health and the health of his family members.
“There will always be critics,” he said to ThePrint, adding, “Our people are working continuously on the ground. We have made sure that we reach out to every household at each stop.”
What concerns him is what the common man thinks about his “prayas” (effort). He asked the gathering at Bhangaha, “Lekin log prayas ke baare mein kya keh rahe hain? (What are people saying about our efforts?)”
Challenges galore for Kishor
Kishor is well-versed in making politicians and parties win, but being the face of his own campaign brings new challenges.
Bihar politics is crowded. Apart from the BJP, JD(U) and RJD, many smaller parties have their own loyal constituents — divided on the basis of caste and communities.
Kishor claimed he is trying to go towards the politics of development, unemployment, inflation and poverty from Bihar’s traditional caste and religion-centric politics.
Last May, he had announced that he was quitting as a political strategist. This came after the announcement of two successful campaigns he was part of — Mamata Banerjee’s victory in West Bengal and MK Stalin’s victory in Tamil Nadu.
In May 2022, he hinted at his own political outing and a “path to ‘Jan Suraaj’” in a tweet. While he is yet to launch a party, or provide his expertise in the formation of one, his yatra is making sure his name is on people’s tongues.
The renewed Mahagathbandhan (the ruling coalition of JD(U), RJD, and Congress), the BJP, and new parties like Hindustani Awam Morcha and Jan Adhikar Party are who Kishor will have to face in his foray into Bihar politics.
(Edited by Theres Sudeep)
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