Eye on 2025 Bihar polls, Prashant Kishor's message for Dalits, Muslims: 'Come together'

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor will launch his political party - Jan Suraaj - on October 2, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. Making this announcement, the Jan Suraaj convenor recently said he was looking to install a panel of 21 leaders to helm party affairs, The Indian Express reported on Wednesday. 

Kishor has already announced that his party would contest all the 243 seats in Bihar in the 2025 Assembly polls. In January this year, the ace strategist said that at least 75 people belonging to the Extremely Backward Classes (EBC) category will be fielded by a single platform supported by his organisation 'Jan Suraaj' in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections.

People belonging to the EBC community have always been exploited by the ruling parties in the state, Kishor claimed. "In the Bihar assembly elections of 2025, you will see for the first time at least 75 people from the EBC category contesting the election from a single platform," he said while speaking at an event in Patna.

On October 2, 2022, Kishor embarked on a 3,500 km 'padyatra' in Bihar from the West Champaran district as part of his 'Jan Suraaj' campaign. During his public meetings, he appealed to the people in Bihar to stop voting along caste and religious lines and vote for the party that can bring change in the state. 

The IE reported that Kishor, at a gathering in Kishanganj, announced that the Jan Suraaj party will field 75 Muslims in the 2025 Assembly polls. He also claimed that the RJD and JD(U) - two regional parties that ruled the state for decades - did not give key positions to Muslims in their governments. He reportedly pointed out that Muslims make up 17% of the state's population – 3% more than the Yadavs – but have not had a pan-Bihar leader.

Kishor also urged the Muslims and Dalits – which collectively make up 37% of Bihar's population – to come together. He said Dalit votes were currently scattered as there were individual leaders like Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi. "The three Dalit CMs in the state's history – Bhola Paswan Shastri, Ramsunder Das, and Manjhi – were more of placeholders rather than figures of authority."

Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi are currently part of the NDA.