From “Bihar mein bahaar hai, Nitish-e Kumar hai” to “Abki baar Modi sarkar”,
From “Achche beete 5 saal, lage raho Kejriwal” to “Didi ke Bolo” for Mamata Banerjee, and
“Halqe vich Captain” for Amarinder Singh to “Jagananna’s Navaratnalu” for Jagan Mohan Reddy
– one man’s mind has been behind them all. He is not a seasoned politician but an ordinary man, who at one point in time, became the country’s most successful political strategist – Prashant Kishor, famously called PK.
After years of helping others win elections, Prashant Kishor is ready to test his own party’s political fortunes. The strategist turned activist initially hinted at contesting in the upcoming Bihar elections, telling NDTV, “Kisne bola ki nahi ladenge? Bilkul ladenge. Agar zarurat hogi to ladenge. Party tay karegi [Who said I won’t contest? Of course, I will. If needed, I’ll contest – the party will decide].”
Kishor was actively campaigning in Raghopur – a politically significant seat that has previously been represented by two Bihar Chief Ministers – Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi. The constituency is currently held by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.
“The same fate as of Rahul Gandhi in Amethi,” Prashant Kishor recently said, referring to the BJP leader Smriti Irani’s victory in 2019 in the Congress stronghold. He has now fielded another candidate from this constituency and announced last week that he will not be contesting the Bihar assembly election. This, he said, was made in the larger interest of his party.
With the Bihar election scheduled for next month, let’s take a closer look at Prashant Kishor – the man who went from defining election strategies for almost all the parties in India to building his own political faction – Jan Suraaj.
From public health to a political battlefield
Born in Bihar’s Konar village, 48-year-old Prashant Kishor was born to Shrikant Pandey, a physician, and Sushila Pandey, a homemaker. Kishor, who spent part of his childhood in UP, completed his formal education and started building a career far from home. He was working as a public health professional with the United Nations in Chad, Central Africa.
But what made him leave a stable career at the United Nations and step into politics that is full of uncertainties?
It all began with a research paper he wrote, which highlighted how states with high economic growth still struggled with malnutrition. And Gujarat performed particularly poorly. The paper caught the attention of none other than then-Gujarat CM Narendra Modi. In 2011, with just a year left for the Gujarat Assembly election, Kishor joined Modi’s team. And the rest, as they say, changed the course of political campaigning in the country.
Although he was working closely with the BJP, he remained one of its invisible backroom strategists. PK became a man known more for his ideas than his face. In fact, in 2012, an English daily in Ahmedabad published an article about him without carrying his photograph, simply because nobody had one. Kishor’s strategies worked, and Modi retained the “throne” in Ahmedabad in 2012 by securing 115 out of 182 seats. He became the Chief Minister for the fourth consecutive time.
BJP then shifted its focus to the power seat at the Centre. And who better to help them achieve this than Kishor? In the run-up to the 2014 General Election, Kishor co-founded Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) in 2013. The team came up with brilliant marketing strategies – Chai Pe Charcha, 3D rallies, and Manthan, to name a few. It also leveraged social media for campaigning.
After Modi became the Prime Minister of the country, things went sour between the duo. Banking on his visibility that came with “Brand Modi” in 2014, he then joined hands with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and helped the Mahagathbandhan led by him win the state election in 2015. He even rebranded his company, CAG, as I-PAC.
‘I want to quit this space’
His first failure as a political strategist came during the 2017 UP Assembly election, when Congress reached out to him in 2016. The BJP won more than 300 seats, and the Congress could only manage 7. However, this didn’t stop him from scripting winning elections for West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Telangana.
Kishor then joined JD(U) as its vice-president in 2018 and remained affiliated with the party until his expulsion in January 2020 for “indiscipline”. That year, he said, “As a leader, I wanted Nitish Kumar to choose between Gandhi and Godse.” The mention of Gandhi is not just for theatrics. When he said these words, a picture of Gandhi was already hanging behind him on the wall and a quote – “The best politics is right action.”
After hinting at quitting the political consultancy space, in May 2022, he floated the idea of forming a political party. “My quest to be a meaningful participant in democracy an help shape pro-people policy led to a 10-year rollercoaster ride!” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter), before adding, “As I turn the page, time to go to the Real Masters, THE PEOPLE, to better understand the issues & the path to “Jan Suraaj” -Peoples Good Governance.”
“Shuruat Bihar se [The beginning is from Bihar],” he concluded.
Foundation of Jan Suraaj Party
On Gandhi Jayanti, in 2024, Kishor launched the Jan Suraaj Party. With both Ambedkar and Gandhi as political symbols, it positions itself at the centre to centre-left of the political spectrum. The party was born out of the Jan Suraaj Abhiyan, a padyatra from the Gandhi Ashram in Champaran on 2 October 2022, where he directly met people of Bihar. The yatra ended in Patna with a launch event for the party.
At the time, Kishor claimed the party had already gathered a membership base of one crore individuals.
Relevance of Prashant Kishor in Bihar
Union Minister Giriraj Singh, while talking about Prashant Kishor and his party’s relevance in the upcoming Bihar election, said Kishor had realised he would not win the election, so he announced that he would not contest.
“He has withdrawn the investment he made in creating the Jan Suraaj Party. His party is only a ‘vote-cutter’ party; in reality, Jan Suraaj is the ‘B team’ of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD),” he said.
BJP spokesperson Niraj Kumar tagged his decision of not contesting the election as a “humiliation for his party workers”.
It is to be noted that Prashant Kishor’s party made its electoral debut in the 2024 Bihar by-elections, contesting four constituencies – Belaganj, Imamganj (SC), Ramgarh, and Tarari. Although it didn’t secure a win, the campaign marked Kishor’s formal entry into politics, setting the stage for what could be Bihar’s next big political experiment.
After all, the “kingmaker” once said in a presser, “Chunav ladna, ladana, jeetna, ye kaam toh main roz karta hoon [Contesting elections, fighting them, and winning – that’s something I do every day].”