On Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary, a new political outfit is born in Bihar.
The Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) of poll strategist Prashant Kishor had already created ripples in the state where two regional parties, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Janata Dal (United), have ruled in alliance with national and regional parties for almost three decades. Bihar goes to polls in a year and therefore, this is the most opportune time for the emergence of new parties. Will PK emerge as a strong alternative?
Belonging to a Brahmin family in Buxar, PK has closely watched the affairs of various parties like the BJP, the Congress party, the JD(U), the AITC, the AAP, and the DMK, and has also worked for them during polls. He formed a company called I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) to help popularise the party it worked for in different state assembly elections. Nitish Kumar too had inducted him into the JD(U) and appointed him its vice president before the two parted ways on bitter notes.
Before launching his party, PK travelled the length and breadth of Bihar for two years to make sense of the ground realities. The assembly elections are still a year away and the JSP founder sounds maybe a bit too confident.
“We are going to get an absolute majority to form our government. If we touch just the majority mark or win a few seats above the majority, it will be my failure and I am ready to own it. We are going to win an absolute majority,” he has claimed.
Intensifying his attack on the JD(U) supremo, he asserted, “No matter which alliance forms the government, the chief minister's post is reserved for Nitish Kumar. He has applied a good amount of Fevicol on this chair. Despite being reduced to 42 MLAs, he has remained glued there.”
PK is also a vocal critic of Nitish Kumar's prohibition policy calling it a total farce. “Our government will do away with prohibition within hours of taking oath. This policy is causing a revenue loss of Rs 20,000 crore a year. Whether I get the vote of women or not, I will continue speaking against the liquor ban since it is not in the interest of Bihar.”
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The Muslim Vote
PK is trying to woo the support of three major sections: Muslims, OBCs, and women, i.e., the vote banks of the RJD and the JD (U).
He organised a big congregation of Muslims where he declared his party would field 40 Muslim candidates. He said Muslims had remained backwards because the community did not select the “right leaders”. He warned that they should not become 'politically bonded labourers'. “Lalten me aap jal rahe hain aur roshni kahin aur ho rahi hai (you are being burned as fuel in the lantern [RJD symbol] but the light goes somewhere else),” PK said, donning a green keffiyeh.
Muslims in Bihar have voted for Lalu’s party for about three decades and, to some extent Nitish Kumar's party despite his association with the BJP. Both these parties are worried about PK’s outreach to the minority community which enjoys 18 percent population in the state.
The Muslim vote in recent times, however, seems to drifted away from the RJD, particularly after the death of former MP Mohammad Shahabuddin in Tihar jail. The Don of Siwan had a good following and his family has been upset by the party's attempts to sideline them. His widow, Hena Shahab, contested the last parliamentary election as an independent, albeit unsuccessfully.
Of late, the RJD has started to win back the support of Shahabuddin's family to allay the apprehension of Muslims. Recently, Tejashwi Yadav had a closed-door meeting with Hena Shahab in the backdrop of PK’s efforts to garner the Muslims’ support. The community's reported disenchantment with the RJD makes PK believe that this hugely significant constituency is looking for an alternative.
Other Parties are Worried
RJD's state president Jagada Nand Singh, in a hard-hitting letter that is also being seen as a warning, stated, “The party to be launched by Prashant Kishor Pandey is being supported and financed by the BJP and other communal forces. This is going to be a B team of the BJP.”
Whether it is the RJD, the JD (U), or the Congress party, they treat PK as a pawn of the BJP, existing only to weaken secular forces and the INDIA block in Bihar. “No matter how many Muslim candidates he fields, the community understands his nefarious designs,” asserted Samir Kumar of the Congress party.
And the RJD’s Manoj Jha said, “Prashant talks about the welfare of Muslims, but I never saw him speaking on the bulldozers which are demolishing houses and shops of Muslims in BJP-ruled states. I never heard him speaking on mob lynching of Muslims.”
PK but also assured 40 tickets to women. In Bihar, women across castes have, by and large, voted for Nitish Kumar during the last 15 years, impressed by his women's reservation policies in panchayat and local bodies elections, along with school uniforms and bicycles for girls. If he is trying to hit the RJD by luring Muslims, he is eyeing the support of women to hit Nitish Kumar.
Nobody knows which way Bihar voters will shift but one thing is crystal clear. The established political parties, mainly regional outfits, will have to work hard to maintain their vote bank in light of PK's entry into elections next year.
(Faizan Ahmad is a multilingual journalist who has worked in English, Hindi, and Urdu publications, with over three decades of experience. With a Master's degree from Patna University, he has worked with The Times of India, The Telegraph, The Pioneer, Outlook, Sunday, Tehelka, and the Lokmat Times. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)
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