The PK Doctrine

Looking for a foothold in Bihar's caste-dominated landscape, Prashant Kishor, the former strategist for other political parties, is reaching out to Muslims and women on behalf of his own newbie outfit. But can he cut their old ties with Lalu and Nitish?

- Md Asghar Khan

A bespectacled man in his late 40s arrives at an iftar party at the Fatehpur mosque in Vaishali district of Bihar and, with a liberal sprinkling of Urdu in his speech, announces he is against the controversial amendments in the 1995 Waqf law that chief minister Nitish Kumar's party, the Janata Dal (United), duly supports as the ruling BJP’s ally.

“It’s Nitish who must stop the law, and if he doesn’t, then you should at least part ways with him,” he tells the gathering, reiterating his stance on the Wagf (Amendment) Act concerning management of assets donated by Muslims in areligious act of charity and hence deemed nontransferable. The amendments are apparently behind much of the resentment towards Nitish and his JD(U) among Muslims in Bihar today.

Among the men in the mosque listening to Prashant Kishor, also known as PK, a former electoral strategist for much of the country’s party spectrum—from the BJP and the JD(U) to the TMC, the DMK, AAP and the Congress—is 38-year-old Mohammad Irshad, who lives two km away. He likes what he hears and wants to see PK’s newly minted Jan Suraaj Party in power. “Be it Lalu Prasad or Nitish Kumar, they have only ‘used’ us. They form governments with Muslim votes, but what have they really done for us and our children? Everybody chooses a leader from their own caste. Then why don’t they put up Muslim candidates whom we could vote for?” Irshad asks.

PK is clearly eyeing the ‘Muslim vote’ in Bihar that has long coalesced around Nitish’s former ally and main rival Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). “You must stand for your rights, instructs your