THE THIRD FORCE: IS PRASHANT KISHOR RISING IN BIHAR?

Political strategist Prashant Kishor is set to plunge into electoral politics by announcing in October that his party Jan Suraaj will contest all the 243 Assembly seats in Bihar.

- BADAR BASHIR

There is major speculation that the emergence of this third force on Bihar’s electoral scene will disrupt the current status quo, making the alliances of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-Janata Dal (United), and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-Congress look for better strategies to win the 2025 Assembly elections.

The buzz is that Kishor may win over the upper caste Brahmin vote from the BJP camp. According to a BJP office bearer, long discussions are taking place at their party office about the possibility of Prashant Kishor coming in the way of the saffron camp’s win in Bihar. The BJP leader said, “Brahmins are the traditional vote bank of BJP. And if it slips away from the party, there will be electoral losses. The party could lose more than a dozen seats if even only 15% Brahmin voters leave.”