Will Prashant Kishor play the kingmaker?
Patna/ Muzaffarpur/ Saran, Oct. 20 -- Is the political climate ripe for strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP)?
Kishor, who has positioned the JSP as a disruptor in the state's crowded electoral field, promises to improve education and employment in the state and overturn the liquor ban.
On a scorching Thursday afternoon, while half of Sonho - a hamlet in Bihar's Saran district lies asleep, four SUVs zip through its dusty roads. Rahul Kumar Singh, the JSP's candidate for the Amnour seat, arrives with his supporters and soon takes over the narrow lanes to campaign for the upcoming polls.
"We are telling the people that Lalu Prasad had been in power for 15 years, Nitish Kumar is enjoying power for 20 years, but the migration from Bihar did not stop. The level of education in Bihar has not enhanced. Bihar has highest illiteracy, but the people are most laborious. There are no factories here. The young people have to leave their family to get low-wage jobs in Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Haryana," Singh said, claiming that the JSP would work extensively towards improving education and jobs.
Hardly a hundred metres away, Sanjay Shukla - who identified himself as a relative of Singh - remained unimpressed with the JSP. "Women recently got Rs.10,000 for jeevika (livelihood). The roads are excellent as you can see. There is safety and security," he said.
In each of the 35 villages this correspondent visited, residents were aware of Kishor, his JSP, and the slew of promises he had made.
Key among them are the repeal of Bihar's liquor prohibition within hours of coming to power, an increase in the monthly pension for those aged 60 and above to Rs.2,000, a relief package linking migrant workers and farmers directly to the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), and free schooling for children under the age of 15.
Among these, liquor ban is the most talked about promise. Many people want the ban to be removed, said Vikas Kumar, a fruit-seller at Station Road in Darbhanga town.
Nearly 60 kilometers from Amnour, Dr Amit Kumar Das, a Kayasth by caste and the JSP's candidate for the Muzaffarpur seat, said he senses a perceptible change in Bihar.
Speaking from his plush Shree Hospital located near Hathi Chowk in Muzaffarpur district, Das lamented how neither coalition had done justice to Bihar and emphasized that "new experiments" were the need of the hour. "If I am the change, let me be the change. Caste and sectionalism should not be at the centre of the political agenda," he said.
While Kishor is a household name in Bihar, his party faces an uphill task to earn the political trust of many voters. From the Mahadalit enclaves to shopkeepers and unemployed youth. "He will cut votes from both the Mahagathbandhan and the NDA and alter the political arithmetic, but forming government would be very difficult," said Suresh Kumar, a student at Patna University....
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