Patna: Assembly elections in Bihar are due in October-November this year.
Besides the regular contenders, Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj party is expected to play a significant role as well.
Kishor is confident that there will be a change in government, as he believes that over 60% of people in Bihar want change.
He also predicted that Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar will not remain chief minister of Bihar, post the election.
“In the next two months, it will be decided who the over 60% of people who want change will vote for. Will they vote again for those who have let them down before? Will they trust them? Or will they opt for a new alternative? Either way, Nitish Kumar will definitely not be the chief minister after November… I can give this to you in writing. Bihar will have a new chief minister,” Kishor said in an interview with NDTV.
According to Kishor, a survey done by him and his team has revealed that 62% of people in Bihar want change. He said the only question now is whether they will vote for his new party, or the old guard like Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.
Kishor, who worked as a political strategist with JD(U), BJP, Trinamool Congress and some other parties earlier, explained where his confidence stems from.
“All of Bihar knows that Nitish Kumar’s mental and physical condition is not such that he can get anything done. A person who is sitting on a stage and forgetting the name of the Prime Minister sitting next to him; who, when the national anthem is playing, doesn’t know whether it’s the national anthem or a ‘qawwali’… who hasn’t addressed the media in a year. A person who is not in a state to look after himself… how will he look after Bihar? So, if you and I know this, don’t PM Narendra Modi and Amit Shah?” he argued.
“Despite this, they have kept him front and centre so that they can continue with this arrangement at least until the elections are done, and then a new chief minister can come in. You may ask why they are not removing him now, and the answer is that the BJP does not have the preparation or confidence to contest elections on its own in Bihar, and neither has it done so in the past. So, since they have to fight with someone, they are carrying the burden that is Nitish Kumar,” Kishor said.
He claimed that JD(U) won’t win more than 25 of the 243 seats, and said he would quit politics if he is proven wrong about this.
“You can write this down. JDU, on its own strength, is going to get less than 25 seats. If this does not happen, I will quit politics. After the elections, the very existence of JDU will be in question… Nitish Kumar’s approval rating has gone down from 60% to 16-17%. The JDU has no cadre… the only thing it had was Nitish Kumar, and even that is gone now,” Kishor quipped.
Former deputy CM and Lalu’s son Tejashwi Yadav won’t be the next chief minister either, remarked Kishir, claiming that it was his RJD that got Bihar to the state it is in.
“In Bihar, the next chief minister will be from Jan Suraaj. You wait and watch,” Kishor said, adding that it would not be him.
“I am not in the chief minister’s race. I have not come here to become chief minister. Jan Suraaj is not my father’s party. I did not even become the state president or national president. I have come to change the system in Bihar, and that has already started… I am going to Nitish Kumar’s district of Nalanda today, where no one has been able to win. The JDU is losing even in Nalanda,” he said.
Claiming that 1.25 crore people have joined the Jan Suraaj movement, Kishor admitted he is a ‘kingmaker’.
“This movement is about making the people and children of Bihar kings. It is about getting the children of Bihar out of poverty… For me, the idea is to help Bihar improve. Being Bihari should become a source of pride; no child should think ‘Bihari’ is a curse word,” he said.
