What went wrong for Prashant Kishor as exit polls show no breakthrough for Jan Suraaj Party in Bihar elections

The Jan Suraaj Party, led by strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, has been shown by exit polls to have made no significant impact in the Bihar assembly elections. The party had launched its campaign much earlier than other parties and distributed its focus equally across all seats. This went against analysts’ expectations that Kishor might concentrate his resources on a few constituencies to establish sample seats.

According to political observers, Prashant Kishor, as a strategist, might have adopted this approach to develop local power centres in each constituency and convey the message that the party aims to build a pan-Bihar cadre, where every constituency holds equal importance. 

The party, despite knowing that there are many seats which are out of their reach, conducted blanket outreach programmes, where its ground cadre tried to reach out to as many people possible and hand them the party's promise card, which it would fulfil once it comes to power. A Jan Suraaj leader said, "We promised them (women) Rs 20,000 worth benefits each if our party comes to power, but then, the NDA transferred them Rs 10,000 immediately after announcing. That changed the rules of the game to a large extent. "

According to party leaders, Kishor, as a strategist, used to see things from a distance and get a better view of what is happening and what could be done, but as a politician, there is a sea change in his approach. "Since he is himself a politician now, he wouldn't know every stuff going around in his party. He has only a few people to brief him about the developments. If they miss it, Kishor wouldn't know. He has himself said in one of the interviews that he will only be able to know what people around him tell him," a young leader from the party said. 

Moreover, the party's prime mover, the one who popularised the party and built the momentum, Prashant Kishor, ensured that he is visible among the electorate by campaigning ceaselessly and was ever-present on social media by giving innumerable interviews, which gave an indomitable hype to the party. 

A party leader said, "There is a different kind of liking of Prashant Kishor by the media, and our media team's management of the press was pretty good. But, just a month before the elections, we saw a drop in momentum, which was because everyone’s motive was to get a ticket for themselves, and when they didn't get it, many of the people did not work with the same commitment they were working before the ticket distribution. The whole responsibility eventually fell on the singular young and inexperienced candidates who didn’t know what to do next and how to contest the elections. Consequently, the work could not progress as planned."

Several of the party's candidates had also turned away from spending money, which could have helped them salvage the campaign at the grassroots and helped them to win over the electorate, which led to the lacklustre first-ever campaign of the party. According to a section of party leaders, the people would welcome the party less, as several people's mindset was that only those should be voted who have struggled for years. "They say Lalu struggled for 20 years and Nitish for 20 years too. How can we vote for you just like that; you still have a long way to go," a leader said.

Jan Suraaj Bihar Pradesh vice president Dr R.K. Jha tells THE WEEK, "If the exit polls stand true after the results, we will begin our journey for the next elections from a fresh point. Whatever approach we have towards the people of Bihar, we will continue with that. There will be no change in our strategy; it has worked well for us so far. We will continue to focus on what we have been doing in the past. We will reach out to people and places where we have not been able to reach out, and also reconnect with people in areas where our presence has been limited. We will definitely try to expand our outreach."