PATNA: Poll strategist turned political activist, Prashant Kishor on Wednesday, October 2 officially launched his new political party namely, “Jan Suraaj Party”. In a foundation convention of the party held in state’s capital Patna, the former functionary of Janata Dal United (JDU) named, Manoj Bharti as the working president of the party.
The much hyped announcement was made after Kishor visited over 5500 villages of 17 districts covering over 3000 kilometer distance during his ongoing Jan Suraaj Yatra, a campaign aimed at outreaching the people of the state.
Manoj Bharti, a resident of Madhubani was an alumni of IIT Kanpur and had served as India’s ambassador in Ukraine, Belarus, Timor-Leste, and Indonesia. Announcing the name of Bharti, Kishor said that the Jan Suraaj campaign is going on for 2-3 years and people were asking when we will be forming the party. We all must thank God, today the election commission has officially accepted Jan Suraaj as Jan Suraaj Party.
जन सुराज अभियान एक अहम पड़ाव पर पहुंच चुका है। बिहार के लाखों लोगों के सामूहिक प्रयास का यह अभियान आज राजनीतिक दल का स्वरूप लेने जा रहा है। स्वतंत्र भारत के इतिहास में पहली बार ज्ञान की भूमि और लोकतंत्र की जननी माने जाने वाले बिहार में ऐसे दल की नींव रखी जा रही है जो किसी…
— Jan Suraaj (@jansuraajonline) October 2, 2024
Reiterating his position on uplifting the liquor ban in the state, Kishor further said that “If Bihar has to have a world-class education system, Rs 5 lakh crore is needed in the next 10 years. When the liquor ban will be removed, that money won’t go into the budget and will not be used for road, water and electricity either. That will be used only for building a new education system in Bihar.
From poll strategist to political activist
Hailing from Rohtas of Bihar, Prashant Kishore completed his schooling from Buxar and went to Hyderabad for higher studies. He subsequently joined a United Nation (UN) funded scheme and worked there for around 8 years.
During his stay years with UN, Kishor was also deputed in America. However, he returned to India in the year 2011 to begin a fresh career as a poll strategist. He joined the then Chief Minister of Gujrat, Narendra Modi and led his poll campaign in 2014 general elections, which resulted in a huge success for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The successful handling of the campaign as a poll strategist in the 2014 general elections paved way for Kishor’s associations with other political parties in the coming years. During the next six years Kishor worked with a number of political parties leading them to success in state assembly polls.
In 2015 he worked with the JDU- RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) alliance which emerged victorious in the elections. He subsequently worked with Jagan Mohan Reddy led YSR, Bengal’s CM, Mamata Banerjee, former Punjab CM, Captain Amrinder Singh, DMK and Aam Aadmi Party.
Kishor made his debut in active politics in the year 2018 and joined the JDU. In his short term association with the JDU, Kishor was made the national vice-president of the party and was considered close to Bihar’s CM, Nitish Kumar. However, to much of everyone surprise, Kishor parted ways with the party in the year 2020.
In the year 2022, Prashant Kishor commences his much-hyped Jan Suraaj campaign, with an aim to launch a political party in coming years, which come to reality on October 2.
Notably, Prashant Kishor since the commencement of his ‘Jan Suraaj campaign’ has been vocal about the issue of lack of employment opportunity in the state, prompting millions to migrate to other states for livelihood opportunities.
During his interactions with the masses, Kishor has also been seen critical of the dynastic position politics, alleging that only handful of the people in the state are in the helm of affairs for years, who have failed to address the concerns of the masses. He also has tried outreaching the Muslim community recently and has promised to provide them with the opportunity to strengthen their representation in politics.
Now after the election commission’s nod, Kishor’s newly formed Jan Suraaj Party is expected to contest on all the assembly seats of the state, furthering the trouble for other major political players in the contest for the 243 seats state assembly. The newly formed party is expected to announce its agenda for the state in the next 4-5 months.
State assembly elections in Bihar is expected to take place in November-December next year, where a tough contest is expected between the JDU-BJP led ruling coalition and the RJD led opposition.
