The imprint of Arvind Kejriwal’s political style was being felt from the very beginning in Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj campaign. There are many such tricks, which were first adopted by Arvind Kejriwal and later by Prashant Kishore. One example is accusing political opponents of corruption.
Prashant Kishore In this case, a different thing was seen from the very beginning. The leaders approached the court against the corruption allegations made by Arvind Kejriwal, and Arvind Kejriwal had to save his life by tendering a written apology, but a different case was seen in the case of Prashant Kishore.
Bihar government minister Ashok Chaudhary had sent a notice to Prashant Kishore, but instead of taking the matter forward, he himself took a U-turn. If we look at it, Prashant Kishore appears to be twenty compared to Arvind Kejriwal in this matter. Jan Suraj Party The candidates also claim to be elected only after feedback from the people of the area, Arvind Kejriwal has also been doing the same.
But, in case of contesting elections Arvind Kejriwal Since then, Prashant Kishor has started lagging behind. Prashant Kishore Kishore made a lot of noise about contesting the elections, but has now backed down. In terms of contesting elections, Arvind Kejriwal seems to be much ahead of Prashant Kishore.
In his very first election, Arvind Kejriwal had defeated Sheila Dikshit, who had been the Chief Minister of Delhi for 15 years, by challenging her on her seat. It is true that Arvind Kejriwal had to face defeat in the 2025 Delhi elections, but in 2014 he went to Varanasi and challenged the then BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. And, the votes were also not less – but Prashant Kishor is not taking the name of entering the fray.
Big claims were made
From Nitish Kumar to Tejashwi Yadav Prashant Kishor, who claimed to contest elections against Tak, has laid down his arms, and has used Jan Suraj Party’s decision as an excuse for this. Let us accept Nitish Kumar, he no longer contests elections. To remain the Chief Minister, he takes membership of the Legislative Council, but Tejashwi Yadav is going to contest elections from Raghopur Assembly seat for the third time. Tejashwi Yadav has also filed nomination with his entire family.
Before leaving for the election campaign, Prashant Kishore had said last week, I am going to Raghopur… I will meet the people there and take their opinion.
Prashant Kishore had even claimed that if he contested elections from Raghopur, Tejashwi Yadav would have to contest elections from two seats. Prashant Kishore said, ‘Tejashwi Yadav will meet the same fate as Rahul Gandhi in Amethi.’ In the 2019 general elections, Rahul Gandhi also contested from Amethi in UP and Wayanad Lok Sabha seat in Kerala. Rahul Gandhi was defeated by BJP’s Smriti Irani in Amethi.
But when the list of candidates of Jan Suraj Party came, it came to light that Chanchal Singh has been given the ticket from Raghopur. There was a possibility of Prashant Kishore contesting the elections from Karghar also, from where Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Pandey has got the Jan Suraj Party ticket – now Prashant Kishore himself has said that he is not going to contest the assembly elections.
Prashant Kishore says, the party has decided that I should not contest the assembly elections… Therefore, the party has announced another candidate from Raghopur against Tejashwi Yadav… This is a decision taken in the larger interest of the party… If I had contested the elections, it would have diverted my attention from the necessary organizational work.
Is Prashant Kishor afraid of anything?
Of course, Prashant Kishor has proved his mettle in electoral politics, but he is able to hit the right target only by placing a gun on the shoulders of others. Till now he has no experience of aiming on his own. But, this experience will also be possible only after contesting the elections. When you don’t contest elections then where will you get the experience?
1. One has to enter the election field to fight, not to win or lose. But, Prashant Kishore has decided not to take this risk. Certainly, they would not be able to give themselves the same guarantees that they have been giving to their clients till now. When Arvind Kejriwal would have contested the elections for the first time, he would have been assured of victory, even he would not have got a guarantee. From yourself or from someone else.
2. The Raghopur assembly seat from where Tejashwi Yadav is contesting has been the stronghold of Lalu Yadav’s family. Both Lalu Yadav and Rabri Devi have been MLAs from Raghopur. It may be difficult for Tejashwi Yadav to get majority in Bihar, but it does not seem possible for someone to suddenly enter the field and defeat Raghopur.
3. It is true that Amethi has also been considered the stronghold of the Gandhi family, but Smriti Irani also had to face defeat for the first time in the 2014 general elections. And anyway, there is a lot of difference between Prashant Kishore and Smriti Irani. Despite losing, Smriti Irani stood firm in Amethi for full five years, and Rahul Gandhi had become unconcerned about such things.
4. Prashant Kishor may have emerged as a voice of change in Bihar, but his image has not changed much. Now Arvind Kejriwal’s image may not be the same as before, but initially he had emerged as a hero against corruption. It is possible that Prashant Kishore is also having to pay the price of people being disappointed with Arvind Kejriwal.
5. By withdrawing his claim of contesting the elections, Prashant Kishor has given people a chance to think that he has pulled back due to fear of defeat. And, this will remain in people’s minds until Prashant Kishor proves himself.
On Prashant Kishor’s decision of not contesting the elections, RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari says, all these are like water bubbles in politics… the air has gone out… they had come to do social service, politics is not for everyone… people came to know that there is a tsunami in the name of Tejashwi Yadav. Why will he contest the elections, he has already lost. Whatever he wanted to say, he ran out of breath.
Prashant Kishor’s scale of accepting defeat
Prashant Kishore has set the target of seats for Jan Suraj Party in Bihar Assembly elections. At least 150 seats. In an interview, Prashant Kishore has said that if he gets less seats than this then it will be like his defeat.
Jan Suraj Party leader says, I can definitely say, either we will win spectacularly, or we will lose badly… I have been continuously saying that I expect to get either less than 10 seats or more than 150… There is no possibility in between.
Prashant Kishor says, if we perform well, we will get the mandate to transform Bihar and make it among the 10 most advanced states of the country… If we do not perform well, it will mean that people have not shown enough trust in us… and we will have to continue our society and street politics.
Prashant Kishore may have changed his profession. Even though he has jumped into politics from being an election strategist, he still has more confidence in contesting elections and not in fighting himself. We have to admit, contesting elections requires more confidence and courage.
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