Before the Bihar Assembly elections, another party named Jan Suraj Party has entered the fray in the state. The first leader and working president of this party, created by election strategist turned pedestrian Prashant Kishore, has been made Manoj Bharti of Madhubani, who is a former officer of the Indian Foreign Service. By making Manoj Bharti of Dalit community the leader of Jan Suraj Party, Prashant has indicated that after Lalu Yadav, Tejashwi Yadav and Nitish Kumar, his next target is Chirag Paswan who is considered to be the biggest leader of Dalits in the state. Prashant’s party will contest semi-finals in the by-elections for four assembly seats in November before the final assembly elections in 2025 and, according to PK, will show other parties how to fight and win.
According to the report of the caste survey conducted by the Nitish Kumar government during the Grand Alliance government, there are 36.01 percent extremely backward, 27.12 percent other backward, 19.65 percent Dalit, 15.52 percent upper caste and 1.68 percent tribal in the state. Since the time of Ram Vilas Paswan, the votes of a large section of Dalits have been with his family. Based on the voting pattern and interpretation of votes received, it is believed that Chirag Paswan has 6 percent votes which he carries with him. Chirag’s party LJP-Ram Vilas, which contested 5 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has got 6.47 percent votes. In 2020, when Chirag’s old party Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) fought alone, it got 5.66 percent votes in the elections of 135 seats.
Prashant Kishor’s Padyatra that has been going on for two years has shown interest in Jan Suraj among the Muslim community. Prashant Kishor, who has been carrying only Mahatma Gandhi and Charkha on the banner-poster of Jan Suraj for two years, said on the occasion of the establishment of the party that he will approach the Election Commission for using the photos of Mahatma Gandhi and Bhimrao Ambedkar in the flag of Jan Suraj Party. Will request. After roaming around with Mahatma Gandhi and the charkha for two years, Prashant Kishore has understood that the support of Dalits is very important to achieve victory in 2025.
Making Manoj Bharti the working president of Jan Suraj Party and placing Ambedkar along with Gandhi in the flag is a strategy to attract more than 19 percent Dalit voters of the state. After the Supreme Court’s decision regarding the creamy layer in Scheduled Caste reservation, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) allies Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi are fighting over benefits. While Chirag is linking SC reservation with discrimination and untouchability, Manjhi is counting that only four SC castes have been eating the cream of reservation for 70 years.
From this it is clear that coordination among Dalits in Bihar will deteriorate in the assembly elections. Prashant is trying to convert this disaster caused by the Supreme Court’s decision into an opportunity for Dalits by making them leaders and putting Ambedkar’s photo on the flag. In this, the sample of how much success Manoj Bharti, who has been made acting president for PK or till March, gets, will be available from the possible assembly by-elections in November.
