Nobody knows what’s happening behind the curtain in Bihar: Prashant Kishor

PATNA: A day after Bihar visit of Telangana CM K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR), wherein he met two prominent Opposition faces in the country- CM Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, poll strategist- turned- political activist Prashant Kishor said ‘nobody has any idea of what is actually happening in the background.’
“The political scenario in Bihar has changed by 180 degrees within the last three months (after his announcement about Jan Suraj campaign in the state in May). And nobody has any idea of what is happening in the background. Just keep watching how many times it is going to change,” Kishor said in a public meeting at Hajipur on Thursday organised under his Jan Suraj (good governance) campaign.
The ‘suspenseful’ statement by PK, as Kishor is popularly known, is being seen in the background that he shares close relations with the Telangana CM, who has been a strong proponent of anti- BJP and anti- Congress front in the country, while Kishor also dumped an offer from Congress earlier this year to help the Grand Old Party in 2024 general elections.
KCR in a press conference at Hyderabad in March this year had categorically said that PK is working with him to “bring a change in the country.”
“Prashant Kishor is in talks with me. Prashant Kishor is working with me to bring a change in the country...Prashant Kishor is my best friend from the last seven- eight years. He is like family. You people (media persons) don’t know who Prashant Kishor is, what is his commitment to the nation,” KCR had told reporters.
The Telangana CM had added that PK has worked with top anti- BJP leaders in several states, including Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi and M K Stalin in Chennai among others.
It has been widely reported that KCR has a vision of launching a national party or rechristening his party, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) as BRS (Bharatiya Rashtra Samithi). This happened after KCR’s bid to unite the regional parties across the country to form a federal front ahead of 2019 general elections went in vain. Political observers claim that KCR’s bid to shift to national politics will also pave the way for passing on the “throne of Telangana” to his son KT Ramarao.
Ramarao announced in April this year that PK’s brainchild- Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) is working with TRS, though Kishor had disassociated himself with IPAC after emphatic victory of Mamata in West Bengal assembly elections in 2021.
“PK has been here (Hyderabad) several times. He remains a friend and I’m sure he will continue to be a friend. Nevertheless, the institution we are working with is I- PAC,” Ramarao, who is TRS working president and information technology minister in KCR’s government at Telangana, had told a news channel on April 26.
In another noteworthy incident, RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav had met KCR at Hyderabad on January 11 this year, not long before the proximity between Tejashwi and Nitish started getting clearly seen back in Bihar during Iftaar parties. KCR had held separate meetings with top leaders of left parties CPI (M) and CPI a couple of days before his meeting with Tejashwi.
Now, with I- PAC working with TRS and PK’s close relations with KCR and PK also repeatedly saying that he enjoys cordial personal relation with Nitish, speculations are rife that the ace poll strategist may be in the role of bringing Opposition leaders together as he has worked with most of them, including Mamata, Kejriwal and Stalin and Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy among others.
“In my view, KCR coming all the way to Patna to offer financial assistance to the families of five Indian soldiers from Bihar who lost their lives in Galwan Valley in Kashmir, was not the sole reason for his arrival. The timing of the event is noteworthy as it happened within a month of Nitish snapping ties with BJP and joining hands with RJD. Everybody saw that KCR met Nitish as well as Lalu in private. PK on the other hand, was the binding factor when Nitish and Lalu formed the government here for the first time in 2015 and he has been a staunch opponent of BJP’s policies,” political observer and former principal of Patna College N K Choudhary said.
He added: “With Kishor touring the hinterlands of Bihar from last three months under his Jan Suraj campaign and the political landscape of the state having changed during the same time, it can be interpreted that Kishor may be playing a role in the background and he may continue to play a key role in ensuring consensus between prominent Opposition leaders at the national level ahead of 2024 general elections as he has worked with many of them.”
Kishor was unavailable for a comment on the issue.