PK BIDS TO BE A THIRD FORCE

Prashant Kishor reshapes core team, blending caste calculus with credibility to position Jan Suraaj for the big poll fight

- By Amitabh Srivastava

IT'S A PRASHANT KISHOR encore, so none of the mainstream parties had exactly wished for it. The October 2024 birth of Jan Suraaj Party was preceded by a good bit of labour: two full years, about 5,000 km, of pacing up and down the natal ward of Bihar. That hard-earned paternity is now entering its logical phase: the JSP aims to make it good in the coming state election. Prashant (‘PK’) has hit the ground running—with a rerun. He plans to criss-cross all 243 assembly constituencies before October-November with his 'Bihar badlaw yatra'. Bad law is just about right, as a spot of starting trouble proved. On May 18, under a blistering sun in Nalanda, PK found himself stopped on way to Kalyanbigha, CM Nitish Kumar's ancestral village. “Yahaan koi