Political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on Wednesday (October 2) officially launched his political party, Jan Suraaj Party, in Patna, with the presence of several prominent figures. Before the launch, he urged attendees to chant the slogan “Jai Bihar” as a message to states where people from Bihar face abuse and mistreatment.
“You all need to say ‘Jai Bihar’ so loud that no one calls you and your children ‘Bihari’ and it feels like abuse. Your voice must reach Delhi. It must reach Bengal, where students from Bihar were beaten. It must reach Tamil Nadu, Delhi, and Bombay wherever Bihari children were abused and beaten,” Prashant Kishor said.
This comes two years after Kishor undertook a 3,000-km-long ‘padayatra’ across Bihar, starting from Champaran, where Mahatma Gandhi had initiated his first Satyagraha. Kishor’s objective during this journey was to rally support for a “new political alternative” that could address the state’s longstanding issues of underdevelopment.
The event saw the participation of notable personalities like former Union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav and diplomat Pavan Varma. Kishor’s party launch coincides with the second anniversary of his ‘padayatra’. In July, when he announced his intention to form a new political entity, Kishor also declared his plans to contest all 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly elections scheduled for next year.
Following his successful role in securing a victory for Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections, Kishor had stated his intent to step back from political consulting. In October 2022, he began his statewide yatra, signaling his entry into active politics.
Kishor aims to establish Jan Suraaj as a distinct force in Bihar, a state marked by significant underdevelopment and dominated by major political players like the RJD, BJP, and JD(U). A central message of his campaign has been urging Dalit and Muslim communities to move beyond caste and religious-based voting patterns and to consider the future of their children. Since 1990, Bihar’s leadership has been shaped by social justice politics, led by figures such as Lalu Prasad Yadav, Rabri Devi, and current Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Interestingly, Kishor’s first political engagement was with the JD(U), where Nitish Kumar had appointed him to a key position shortly after he joined the party.
