Four Reasons Why Prashant Kishor Has Chosen Bihar as His Electoral Battlefield

PK worked for Nitish Kumar in 2015 election, popularising slogans such as “Bihar me Bahar Hai, Nitish Kumar Hai”.

Popular slogans like "Bihar me, Bahar Hai, Nitish Kumar hai" were given by Prashant Kishor’s team in 2015.

(Photo: Shruti Mathur/Altered by The Quint)

After turning down the Congress' 'generous offer' to join the party, poll strategist Prashant Kishor is now looking towards Bihar.

Considering it as fertile land for his political stint, Kishor has announced a new campaign.

He has said that the time has come to go to the "real masters" – the people – and that it should start with Bihar.

Political watchers are curious to know why Prashant Kishor, popularly known as PK, has chosen Bihar. There are four possible reasons.

Bihari With a Grip at Grass Root Politics

There is a huge difference between being born in Bihar and working among the people to understand the political trends. Kishor has both these cards in his pocket.

After breaking away from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the aftermath of 2014's victorious campaign for Narendra Modi, PK came to Bihar and joined Nitish Kumar while continuing to throw barbs at the BJP.

Team PK worked for Nitish Kumar in the 2015 Assembly election campaign, popularising slogans such as – “Bihar me Bahar Hai, Nitish Kumar Hai.”

According to the information put out by his organisation I-PAC (Indian political action committee) on its website, the campaign in Bihar had covered 42,000 villages and had reached out to four crore people directly.

It also claims that 5,000 volunteers of I-PAC had carried the message in favour of Nitish Kumar on the bicycle to every nook and corner of Bihar.

Mahagathbandhan consisting of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) (JD-U), Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP) of Lalu Prasad Yadav, and Congress had also come together to form a government after a successful campaign.

I-PAC had carried out various surveys in Bihar on a regular basis which were aimed at feeling the political pulse of the land and its people in order to strategise in the future.

Thus, PK has the data on voters of all castes and religions from rural to urban areas, which he could put to use in the future.

Bihar has often led historical political change in the country, be it the agitation against the Emergency, led by Jayaprakash Narayan challenging the might of Indira Gandhi, or Lalu Yadav’s fight aimed at securing justice for the downtrodden through 'Mandal' politics.

Now, Kishor possibly sees his chance to turn the page to a new chapter in Bihar's political history.

Born in Rohtas in the Bhojpuri belt and having completed his schooling at Buxar, the attachment to the land of his birth may also be attracting PK back to his roots.

The Vacuum of Alternatives in Bihar

A second possible reason for PK to be attracted to Bihar is that there is no “one king” in Bihar, it’s a divided polity.

Lalu Yadav may be the tallest leader of Bihar, but he is out of power. And though his political heir and younger son Tejaswi had performed well in the last Assembly elections, he has a long path ahead of him before becoming the chief minister.

Meanwhile, BJP may have the highest number of MLAs in Bihar but not enough to form the government on its own. BJP also does not have any face in Bihar like Lalu Yadav or Nitish Kumar.

While Nitish Kumar has been able to hold the post of Bihar's chief minister for the last 17 years, his party has drabbled and lost Assembly seats in elections.

JD-U is the third-largest party in Bihar Assembly and if PK joins Nitish Kumar once again in a poll alliance, it will help JD-U immensely.

This of course, is also PK's opportunity to go solo and test his strategising on the field.

Ambitious Youth of Bihar

According to a sample survey conducted around two years ago, Bihar topped with the highest percentage of youth in its population. 57 percent of the population of Bihar is under the age of 25 years.

When PK was national vice president of JD-U, he had run a campaign to bring many of these youth into politics. PK used to interact with various groups of youth and trained them with political skills.

Unemployment also was a major election issue in Bihar in the last Assembly election as vacant posts in government jobs and lack of any major industry impacted the young population's aspirations.

While Tejaswi Yadav had earlier successfully cashed in on the issue of unemployment, PK may also be eyeing the ambitious youth, who could become change-makers in Bihar and may contribute to its development in the future.

Importance in National Politics

Finally, one can not overlook Bihar's importance in terms of national politics as it has 40 Lok Sabha and 16 Rajya Sabha seats, making it the third-largest state in terms of Lok Sabha seats after Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra and fourth largest state in terms of Rajya Sabha seats after Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra.