Chirag Paswan (L) and Prashant Kishor
Credit: PTI File Photos
New Delhi: They were the two high-profile young leaders who made announcements of fighting the Bihar Assembly elections, but LJP(RV)’s Chirag Paswan and Jan Suraaj Party’s Prashant Kishor chose not to enter the fray at the last minute so as not to upset their respective apple carts.
Paswan (42) and Kishor (47) consider themselves chief ministerial material with a high-pitch ‘Bihar first’ campaign, and both put Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and Lalu-Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD on their hitlist for advancing their political journey.
Paswan nurses chief ministerial aspirations as he sees some space to occupy, with Nitish and Lalu, who dominated Bihar for the past around 35 years, entering the last leg of their political life. Kishor also sees a possible vacuum and believes he could be a challenger to Tejashwi, the RJD scion, like Paswan.
As early as June, the LJP(RV) chief had announced that he would contest the Bihar polls and held rallies in Nitish strongholds despite being in alliance with the JD(U) and the BJP in the State. The first to hint at this possibility was his brother-in-law Arun Bharti, an MP, through a post on X.
In rallies in Arrah and Saran in June-July, Paswan unequivocally said he would contest as he wanted to take Bihar to new heights, as he highlighted his ‘Bihar first, Bihari first’ plank. The JD(U) has been suspicious of Paswan’s moves, and Nitish has been upset about the LJP(RV) being given some of its seats.
But as elections neared, sources said Paswan was nudged not to precipitate a crisis in the NDA as the JD(U) was not willing to forget that the LJP contested 137 seats in 2020, “deliberately” denting its prospects in several seats. Paswan quietly exited the contest but only after securing 29 seats for his party in the seat-sharing agreement, which some claim was way above its due.
Kishor, a political strategist-turned-leader, too, was expected to fight the polls, but days after indicating that he may contest against Tejashwi, he bowed out of the race, saying he decided not to fight in the “larger interest of the party”, as it would “distract” him from the “necessary organisational work”.
Being the sole star campaigner for the Jan Suraaj Party, Kishor would have known it earlier, and it is curious that a decision was announced later. His detractors say Kishor is not contesting because he now knows that his party is not doing well.