Will Prashant Kishor’s Bankipur Victory Dent Tejashwi’s Position As Bihar’s Primary Opposition Leader?

Patna: RJD leader Tejashwi has apparently found a new challenger in Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who created a sort of electoral history by  winning an assembly seat, which was once represented by BJP leader Nitin Nabin, now the party`s national president, for five times.

Now that Kishor has secured a seat in the assembly through his victory in the Bankipur by-poll, discussion has already started on whether he would dent Tejashwi’s primary opposition leader role. Although he will not be allotted much time to speak in the house with only one seat in the assembly, he can launch a blistering attack on chief minister Samrat Choudhary and his government on various  issues, with facts and data, through his media interactions, outside the assembly. His formal baptism in Bihar electoral politics appears complete with his victory in the Bankipur by-poll. 

Explaining Kishor`s possible political strategy, former professor of Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) Pushpendra Kumar Singh said, “As a shrewd political strategist and manager, he understands the crucial role of caste and religion in Bihar's politics, and he would make moves accordingly to create his social and vote base. But he is best capable of masking his politics and articulating it in a secular, casteless, and solely development-focused idiom.

“Kishor will first target the RJD and win over Muslims and a section of its support base. His other targets will be the JDU's EBC vote base and the non-core vote base of the BJP. He holds the advantage of being a suave, articulate, upper caste, particularly Brahmin. People may find an alternative to Nitish Kumar in him,” he added. 

Political analyst Praveen Bagi said notwithstanding the fact that Tejashwi holds the position of the leader of opposition in the assembly, he will lose much of his sheen if he like Kishor will not speak with facts and data in the house. Though Kishor will be allotted limited time to speak in the assembly, he can explore various options like asking supplementary questions or using the zero hour efficiently, he added. 

“Since the opposition has weakened in Bihar after the NDA mustered an overwhelming majority in the last assembly election, Kishor has an opportunity to fill that vacuum even though he is the sole MLA of his party. We can see the emergence of a new politics in the state, with development occupying the prime position in the elections, if Kishor succeeds in expanding his social and electoral base across the state,” he remarked.                

RJD spokesperson Chitranjan Gagan said that Kishor`s victory in the by-poll should not be "overrated" as the poll result should be attributed to the people’s anger against BJP and should not  be taken as any support for the former poll strategist. “Prashant Kishor is no more than an event manager who knows how to create an atmosphere but he will not be able to do something very significant in Bihar politics,” he remarked.