A day ahead of expanding Jan Suraaj into a political party, political strategist-cum-activist, and the movement’s founder Prashant Kishor on Tuesday (October 1, 2024) said the popularity enjoyed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling NDA in Bihar has come down.
With the aim of contesting the Assembly election in Bihar in October-November 2025, Mr. Kishor is set to announce Jan Suraaj as a political party on Wednesday (October 02, 2024) in Patna. He has been highlighting his upcoming party’s mantra for a “political roadmap to power” in Bihar. It is expected that Jan Suraaj will contest all 243 seats in the Assembly election next year.
In recent past, Mr. Kishor has been criticising both the BJP-led NDA and the Opposition RJD in the State in equal measure.
Also Read: Prashant Kishor vows to end ‘Bihar Liquor Ban’ within one hour if elected
Noting that the coalition government at the Centre is not on a firm footing, he said: “The longevity of the Central government is now dependent on the upcoming Assembly elections in nine states, including Bihar, in the next 2-2.5 years. If the BJP performs well in these elections, it will remain in power.”
“In Bihar, the BJP is leaderless,” claimed Mr. Kishor. “BJP’s compulsion in Bihar is that they cannot remove Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister as they need help of Mr. Kumar to run the government in Delhi. What changes have they (BJP-led NDA) made in people’s lives after getting 30 seats in 2014, 39 in 2019 and 30 in 2024 seats in Lok Sabha elections in Bihar out of total 40 seats?” he asked. Mr. Kishor, though, admitted that the “condition of Congress party has improved a bit in the last two years”.
Slamming Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Mr. Kishor said that the State government has been “running and controlled only by four retired bureaucrats but neither Mr. Kumar nor these bureaucrats understand the challenges faced by the people of the State”.
In a candid chat with a select group of senior journalists on September 27 in Patna, Mr. Kishor had underlined several points that his upcoming political party would be striving for in the next 15 months in the State before the election is held. When The Hindu asked him pointedly that people view Jan Suraaj as the B-team of BJP and whether it would join hands with the BJP to come to power in the State, Mr. Kishor curtly replied: “Not at all”. “I will never shake hands with the BJP. There would be no need of it,” he asserted.
Mr. Kishor said it was time for Mr. Kumar to leave the political arena in the State. When asked how that would happen, he replied: “Like [former CM] Naveen Patnaik had to go in Odisha, like [President Joe] Biden will have to go in USA…it’s the people who do all this.”
“You will be surprised to know and see faces of those joining Jan Suraaj on October 2. People of the State now say that my party could do something in the State’s political firmament. Around 15 months are left and you will see only Jan Suraaj everywhere in Bihar. We will start the party’s publicity after forming it,” he added.
“Earlier, people used to search my caste in Google, now they search my qualifications and this, I think, has been the change in the last two years of my padyatra (foot march) of over 5000 kilometres across 18 districts of Bihar,” he quipped with a smile. His padyatra, he said, would continue even after forming the political party.
On whether prohibition would come to an end if Jan Suraaj comes to power in the next Assembly polls, he said “within an hour”. “It incurs a loss of ₹20,000 crore every year to the State exchequer,” he added quickly.
Published - October 02, 2024 09:45 am IST
