PK's long walk: JSP targets 243 seats, aims to tilt Bihar's political order

Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party has emerged from a grassroots movement. For the Bihar Assembly polls, Kishor has announced that the party will contest all 243 seats in the state

Slogans such as "Hamara neta kaisa ho, Prashant Kishor jaisa ho" rent the air when Kishor — on October 2, 2022 — started his padayatra across Bihar from Bhitiharwa Gandhi Ashram, in West Champaran.

 

Over the past almost 12 years, Kishor has helped shape electoral strategies for Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, Mamata Banerjee, and Arvind Kejriwal, but has turned away from being a backroom boy to launch an ambitious grassroots movement, Jan Suraaj.

 

It began as a mass-outreach programme to assess the situation in Bihar and reached one of its goals — to be launched as a political party —