Prashant Kishor: From backroom to ballot

48-year-old Prashant Kishor, the political strategist-turned-leader of the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), is a public figure about whom a lot is known and seen, but with every new assignment or stage in his career, something new emerges. As an unknown joke once said, “Why pay to trace your family tree, get into politics and your opponents will do it for you.” Mr. Kishor is now in politics and is neck deep.

To begin with, political observers recognized Mr. Kishor as one of the figures behind Citizens for Accountability and Governance (C&AG), an organization that actively participated in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) political campaign in 2014; This election saw the emergence of the then Gujarat Chief Minister, Narendra Modi, onto the national stage. At that time, the concept of a political strategist working parallel to the party staff and having a close working relationship with the political leader was new. Mr Kishor was described as a former employee of a UN body abroad with ties to public health policy, with an interest in politics that precipitated his return to India. New campaign outreach such as ‘Chai pe charcha’ (chats over tea) was attributed to Mr Kishor and his team.

As the BJP settled into power after the 2014 victory and Mr. Kishor found himself at odds with a party organization that did not give him and his ideas space, he emerged from the BJP system and became close to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who proudly declared that his relationship with Mr. Kishor was the return of his prodigal son. Hailing from Bihar, Mr. Kishor worked with the Mahagathbandhan (an alliance of Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress) that defeated the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the 2015 Assembly polls.

Hailing from Bihar’s Rohtas, the child of a doctor and a housewife, Prashant Kishor did his primary education in Buxar and later in Hyderabad. After his studies, he moved abroad to work at the UN before returning to India as a political consultant. Along with several former colleagues, he founded the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC), a political strategy firm, which created a monumental shift in the way Indians viewed their political parties organizing and fighting elections.

The Mahagathbandhan’s victory in the Bihar elections not only saw the rise of the political strategy firm industry but also, for the first time, revealed a glimmer of frontbench political ambition in Mr Kishor. He was appointed vice-president of the Janata Dal (U) and also served as a strategist for political clients. He led the Congress in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 (not a triumphant outcome) and went on to join the YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh in 2019, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in 2020, and the Trinamool Congress and the DMK in 2021.

But relations between Mr Kishor and Nitish Kumar did not continue to be rosy, with the last dispute coming in 2020 when Mr Kishor openly criticized the Prime Minister over his support for the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) pushed by the Modi government at the Centre. One harsh word after another was uttered, indiscipline and intrigue were alleged, but aspects of Mr Kishor’s ideological leanings emerged in this exchange amid the heterodoxy of his client list.

outside the back room

After the 2021 elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, where he helped the Trinamool and DMK to victory, Mr. Kishor made the decision to switch from a backroom political strategy to launching his own party. In a recent interview with The Hindu, he explained his thinking at the time. “The trigger point was the Covid-19 epidemic. I participated in the elections at that time. [West] Bengal and Tamil Nadu and I felt helpless as I felt like I couldn’t help anyone despite all the networks, power and resources I had. This also made me realize that much of what is said about good governance in Bihar is empty. Almost 5 million people ran into trouble and had to return to Bihar. That’s when I thought I should come back to Bihar. “The proof of this is that on the day Trinamool won Bengal, that is, May 2, 2021, I announced that I was quitting what I was doing,” he said.

His next modus operandi was to investigate the political sphere. He undertook a two-year tour of Bihar and reached the Congress. His initial idea, he said, was to work with the Congress to devise a plan for the six states in northern India where the Congress had shrunk, and to revive the Congress’s pre-independence role as an outlet for anyone who wanted to contribute to public affairs. “Just like during the freedom movement, everyone said that they were part of the Congress, from those who wanted to agitate on the streets to those who boycotted foreign goods and those who twirled the chakra, the party too must mean it from the governance perspective,” Mr. Kishor said. “But we couldn’t take the leap of faith,” he added. The Congress leadership reviewed his presentation and later decided not to participate.

This brings us to October 2024, when the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) was formed in Patna with thousands of registrations. Leaders said they will contest the 2025 Assembly elections in Bihar. It revealed a journey of political alternatives. However, naysayers reminded the newly formed party that the leader’s full name was Prashant Kishor Pandey, implying that his identity (that of a Brahmin) would harm the social justice policies of the State.

‘Politics of development’

Mr. Kishor’s course in Indian politics has revealed his identities and views, both ascribed and acquired. As a vocal face of the JSP, he has been at the forefront of articulating the party’s ideology and plans for what he calls “development policies”. But two things remain unknown: whether his party, which is currently in the electoral fray, will disrupt Bihar’s two-decade-old bipolar political equations, and whether his refusal to fight in the polls as a candidate has ruined or helped that project. Mr Kishor is optimistic about his party’s chances and plays down criticism that the JSP is a “spoiler party”. “When people say vote for the katwa (spoiler) party, they think they are using it as an abuse on us, I say yes we are doing that but we are cutting off so many votes from both the parties (NDA and INDIA bloc) that they will come to an end,” he told The Hindu.

For someone who has disrupted the backdrop of political campaigns in India, entering the electoral fray without a political legacy to fall back on, Prashant Kishor remains a fascinating chapter in Indian democracy.

It was published – 19 October 2025 01:08 IST