With celebrated political strategist Prashant Kishor and retired IFS officer Pavan K Varma poking their Janata Dal (United) boss and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar by speaking out of line, it was not a matter of if but when they would eventually be chucked out of the party. The axe fell recently with the JD(U) expelling both from its primary membership. While Kishor had parachuted into the JD(U) and was soon made its vice president, Varma was always seen as the intellectual face of the party in Delhi. Kishor’s position created heartburn within the party as Nitish projected him as the future face of the JD(U), but his technocracy was difficult for its leaders to digest.

When push came to shove, Nitish threw him to the wolves, saying his induction was merely a favour he did to the then BJP chief Amit Shah. Kishor though has a different take on the Shah part. But the fact remained that someone as driven and young with his level of intelligence, skill and ambition could have ended up becoming an alternative power centre, a space others in the party were unwilling to cede to him.
Kishor then busied himself building connections across parties and offering consultancy to others—Trinamool, Aam Aadmi Party and DMK—and helping the YSR Congress wrest power in Andhra Pradesh.

But since the JD(U) refused to yield, and with the Bihar Assembly elections hardly a year away, he began exploring other options, by tweeting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act shortly after it was passed in Parliament. His tweets created a buzz as they were against the NDA of which the JD(U) is an ally. Varma, too, was itching for a fight, perhaps because he was denied a Rajya Sabha ticket. He openly questioned Nitish’s decision to ally with the BJP in the Delhi Assembly polls. While Varma is a political lightweight, Kishor could be looking for revenge in Bihar, hitching his boat to another party and whipping up a powerful opposition axis in the state polls. If he can do so while factoring in RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s ambitions, it could set up a gripping contest in October.