Political strategist Prashant Kishor on Monday said that until there is an “ideological alignment” among the Opposition parties, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) can’t be defeated.
Kishor, who is on the 3,500-km-long “padayatra” of Bihar, which he calls the ‘Jan Suraaj’ campaign, further said that there needs to be a “coalition of ideologies to fight the Hindutva ideology”.
“You guys in the media are looking at an opposition alliance as the coming together of parties or leaders. Who’s having lunch with whom, who is invited to tea…I look at it in the formation of ideology. Till such time an ideological alignment will not happen. There is absolutely no way the BJP can be defeated,” Kishor said in an interview to NDTV.
“There has to be a coalition of ideologies to fight the Hindutva ideology. Gandhiwadi, Ambedkarites, socialists, communists…Ideology is very important but you can’t have blind faith on the basis of ideology,” he added.
Speaking about the strengths of the saffron party, Kishor said, “If you want to challenge the BJP, you have to understand its strengths – Hindutva, nationalism and welfarism. It is a three-level pillar. If you can’t breach at least two of these levels, then you can’t challenge the BJP.”
Kishor maintained that ‘Jan Suraaj’ is not a political party, not even a movement, and said that the purpose of this yatra is to create a new political system.
“It is to change the destiny and discourse around Bihar. Bihar is known for its political discourse, for its caste-ridden politics and many wrong reasons. It is time Bihar is known for what people are capable of,” Kishor said.
On his fallout with Congress, the I-PAC founder said that there was non-alignment between the goals of the Congress party and him.
“My goal was the reincarnation of the Congress. Their goal was to win the election. We did not agree on the way they wanted to implement my ideas,” he said.
