After falling out with Congress, Prashant Kishor hints at floating party

Vibha Sharma

New Delhi, May 2

After the breakdown of his talks with the Congress, election strategist Prashant Kishor today hinted at launching his own party saying it was “time to go to real masters (people)”.

Beginning from Bihar

Time to go to the real masters (people) to better understand the issues and the path to good governance… ‘shuruat Bihar se Prashant Kishor, poll strategist

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The announcement of a beginning from his home state Bihar a year after the Assembly poll results in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu where he played strategist to Trinamool and DMK created substantial interest in state politics.

“My quest to be a meaningful participant in democracy and help shape pro-people policy led to a roller-coaster ride. As I turn the page, time to go to the real masters, the people, to better understand the issues and the path to jan suraaj people’s good governance (sic)… shuruat Bihar se (beginning from Bihar),” he tweeted.

He, however, did not expand on the nature of jan suraaj, leaving it to people’s imagination whether it was a political party or a movement he was planning to launch or only a concept. His colleagues said Kishor may come out with details at a press conference later this week.

An unimpressed Bihar BJP spokesperson Nikhil Anand tore into the strategist saying: “Prashant Kishor is neither a social scientist nor a political scientist. He is a power broker and a middleman. He can be nothing more than a vote katwa (spoiler) in Bihar politics.” A few leaders of the JD-U, of which Kishor was a part, accused him of brainwashing LJP’s Chirag Paswan against CM Nitish Kumar, affecting the party adversely in the 2020 Assembly poll. “He has no grassroots support,” they said, citing the case of an earlier project ‘Baat Bihar Ki’. Observers, in fact, believe he may ultimately rejoin the JD-U.

Kishor was part of the JD-U before being expelled in 2020 for “indiscipline” following a brief stint rife with controversies. After his ouster, the strategist launched ‘Baat Bihar Ki’ (conversation about Bihar), which ran into trouble after a former associate reportedly accused him of intellectual property rights violation.

As a political consultant, Kishor has worked with the who’s who of Indian politics with leaders such as Narendra Modi, Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin and Jagan Mohan Reddy. Observers, however, are sceptical of his abilities to turn around the fortunes of parties that are not on winning streak. The TMC, DMK and the YSR-Congress would have won anyway, they claim, citing his “over-ambitiousness” as the reason for an unsuccessful stint as a politician.

“I-PAC’s continued association with rival parties, for example Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), was bound to be questioned by those he was trying to associate (the Congress),” they add.