“I’ve been burning my bones since I was a teenager.Prashant Kishor says this about the work he has done over the past three years to get his party, Jan Suraj, up and running in Bihar.
Not only does Kishor, popularly referred to as PK, represent a new party in Bihar, giving sleepless moments to Nitish Kumar’s NDA or Tejashwi Yadav’s Mahagathbandhan Party, he is a reminder of the political space that existed in the state – and perhaps elsewhere – that would have been there for the Congress to exploit had it put in the adversity (hard work) to revive itself organizationally. Instead, it was founder Jan Suraj whose efforts helped the new team emerge as the third pole in Bihar. The Jan Suraj Party fielded candidates for all 243 seats within a year of its creation (three later withdrew their nominations, and one was rejected).
“I occupy the space of those who seek to change the status quo,” Kishor told The Indian Express during one of his final roadshows before his election campaign ends on November 9.
When asked what he did that others did not, Kishore, who has been training padayatras across the state for over two years, said: “I put in hard work, nothing else. Through hard work, I earned my salary and moved from house to house. (I worked hard, built my identity, and went door to door.)”
The election strategist-turned-politician has been among the most discussed names in the 2025 elections. He is someone without a ‘title’ (known), a ‘jati (caste)’ that represents his core constituency, or a ‘legacy’ heard by people across Bihar, but he is seen as one of the most vocal voices on issues like education, unemployment and ‘immigration’, helping to largely define the narrative of the 2025 poll. The resulting “ground chatter” was, in his words, “unparalleled.” He claimed that more than 30 crore people watch Jan Suraj’s videos daily on his platform alone.
While Kishor claims there is an “undercurrent”, especially among the youth who want change, his confidence stems from the “return migrants” who return to the state during Diwali and Chhath Puja. Kishor estimates that 50,000 to 70,000 of them have stayed behind and that at least two-thirds will vote for his party.
However, some in Patna’s political circles feel that Kishor’s momentum “dwindled” after the “initial hype” and the fight became polarized between the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan Party in the final phase of the campaign. However, PK could still end up playing the kingmaker role. According to BJP insiders, instead of the 6% to 10% popular vote they expected Jan Suraj to get, thus dividing anti-incumbency sentiment and hurting Mahagathbandhan, Kashore will likely end up getting 13% to 15%, thus cutting into upper-caste and middle-class votes that could hurt the BJP.
While the BJP tried to weaken the BJP by “convincing” three of its Jan Suraj rivals to quit, the Jan Suraj leader also intensified his attacks on the BJP, leveling allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary.
Had Kishor not fallen out with Nitish Kumar in 2020, he would have had a solid structure on which to build his politics today. At one point, Kumar actually declared himself his successor in the JD(U). Referring to his fallout with the JD(U), citing NDA’s support for the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens, Kishor said: “He cheated me…and I am not easy.”
Nitish told him, “Arrey, Lok Sabha mein vote kar dya, par koi baat nahin, Bihar mein nahin lagoo kiya jayega (We voted for it in the Lok Sabha, it doesn’t matter. It will not be implemented in Bihar).” Kishor said the Prime Minister “can afford to do this at 75… I can’t afford to do this at 40, I like my credibility.”
Similarities and differences with VP
As PK made his way from Patna to Gopalganj, via Saran, Chhabra and Siwan, youth followed his convoy – on hundreds of motorbikes – throwing marigold petals, taking selfies with him, and waving the yellow Jan Suraj flag.
There were flashes of Vishwanath Pratap Singh’s roadshows and meetings in Uttar Pradesh in 1987 after he had just left the Congress to take on Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi on his new platform, the Jan Morcha. Unlike Kishor, the Vice President chose not to form a new party. The Jan Morcha platform brought all non-Congress centrist parties together on one platform and led to the creation of the Janata Dal in 1988. It also brought together anti-Congress state governors and their regional parties to form the second layer of support.
However, the VP still does not believe it will be enough to defeat the Congress. It was only after the Rajiv government gave the go-ahead for the construction of the “shilanaya (foundation stone laying)” of the Ram temple in Ayodhya in 1989, that he thought the Janata Dal might have a chance, as the Congress would have alienated Muslims with the move.
Unlike the previous prime minister, Kishor chose to create his party as a “bottom-up effort”, creating what he says is a “Guldasta package” of “samajik samikaran (social equations)” in each constituency.
In the last 11 years, PK has used his expertise in data, social media and latest technological tools to help leaders like Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, Amarinder Singh, Jaganmohan Reddy and Arvind Kejriwal at different times. It worked for these leaders because they had an organizational structure in place, had been in the political arena for a while, and the public mood was changing in their states. In contrast, BK is a leader who heads a new organization.
So the question is: Can the desire for change, the goodwill of a new political entity and its goals, the expertise in media and the latest technology-driven tools, the monetary resources, which PK says he has, and hard work, be enough to win elections in India today? November 14 may provide some answers.
Kishor plans to give “at least 10 years” to transform Bihar and sees himself emerging as Bihar’s first true mass leader after former CM Karpoori Thakur (according to him, Lalu and Nitish are by-products of CM Singh’s Mandal politics). But whatever the outcome in Bihar, he looks like a leader who is here to stay come results day, and may be the man to watch out for.
(Tags for translation)Patna
