Tejashwi Yadav : Prashant Kishor, the founder of Jan Suraj and a poll strategist, announced that his party would field up to 40 Muslim candidates in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. This move is seen as a calculated attempt to attack Tejashwi Yadav of the RJD and the party’s established Muslim-Yadav (MY) voter base.
At a large Jan Suraj event that drew over 7,000 members of the Muslim community to Bapu Sabhagar in Patna, the announcement was made.
EXPANDING POLITICAL REPRESENTATION
Kishor’s announcement underscores his commitment to bolstering Muslim representation in Bihar’s political landscape. Alongside the promise of 40 Muslim candidates, Kishor revealed plans for his new party’s official launch on October 2, 2024, where he aims to introduce a core team of 25 members, including 4-5 Muslims.
Additionally, the poll strategist said that the party will be sworn in with the support of more than 10 million people from all around the state.
The action is viewed as a direct challenge to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a party that has historically depended on the Muslim-Yadav alliance for support in elections.
Kishor has indicated his intention to challenge the RJD’s historical domination, which was maintained for more than 15 years under Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi’s administration between 1990 and 2005 by the Muslim and Yadav vote banks. Kishor has promised to pay the fees for all 40 Muslim candidates.
KISHOR’S CRITIQUES & POLITICAL AMBITIONS
Beginning on October 2, 2022, Kishor’s campaign required him to travel over a large portion of Bihar, and he is still active in a number of districts.
Kishor has repeatedly stated in his interactions with the public that his party will include representation of individuals based on demographics and the most recent caste census results. The Bihar Caste Survey Report 2023 states that 18,000 people in the state identify as Muslims.
Kishor has been critical of national government measures that he believes hurt Muslim interests, including the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), during his recent interactions with the Muslim community.
Additionally, he charged that Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, had betrayed the Muslim community after first standing up for their rights.
Kishor brought attention to disparities in local government, pointing out that only 1,200 of the 1,650 “Mukhiyas” and “Sarpanch” positions that should exist in accordance with the Muslim population really do.
IMPROVEABLE RJD, CHANGE ADVOCATIVE
The goal of Kishor’s plan is to weaken the RJD’s influence among Muslims. He attacked Tejashwi Yadav and Lalu Prasad, the leaders of the RJD, for allegedly using fear to win over Muslim voters and for not fulfilling their promises of development and politics.
“The reason Muslims are in such a state is that they are not politically conscious. RJD is the primary cause of the lack of political knowledge. RJD has made Muslims feel afraid of the BJP, treating them like political slaves,” the speaker claimed.
“The RJD has only treated Muslims as a vote bank and has never worked for their development and has also not given them political representation in accordance with their population,” Kishor stated.
In the 2015 Lok Sabha elections, the poll strategist denounced the RJD’s meagre Muslim participation—just two out of 23 candidates were Muslim—as well as the JD(U) and BJP’s meager Muslim candidate representation.
