Patna: For the next few months, the state politics will revolve around the two personalities in Bihar. As Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and poll strategist Prashant Kishor would be taking the center stage in the state. Already, Lalu has been discharged from Delhi AIIMS and is expected to land in Patna next week, whereas, PK has announced to launch Padayatra on 2nd October, later, this year, under the name of Jan Suraj.
Both are masters in their respective fields and they will be giving sleepless nights to the leadership of JDU and BJP. There would always be a buzz in state politics as long as they are actively taking part. Now, it would be a big challenge for the ruling parties like JDU and BJP apart from Congress to stop the juggernaut of PK and Lalu in Bihar.
The impact of PK is already visible in Bihar as all the top leaders of ruling parties, as well as the opposition, have started issuing statements against him after his first press briefing in Patna on Thursday. PK had slammed both Nitish and Lalu claiming that no development took place during their combined 30-year rule.
However, downplaying the impact, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said on Friday, "I don't give importance to his assessment', setting the ball rolling for more exchange of words between them.
Even BJP state president Sanjay Jaiswal was so furious over PK and called him dhandebaaz (businessman). Tejashwi also took a dig at PK claiming that he neither watches nor listens to any news related to Prashant Kishor. It's been just a few days and PK has already started grabbing the attention of all the top leaders of Bihar.
Something similar happened with Lalu when he got discharged from Delhi AIIMS. As soon as Lalu came out, he reacted to the recent loudspeaker row, inviting criticism from the ruling parties. Lalu termed the loudspeaker issue fatal for the country to which many BJP leaders reacted sharply. Union Minister Giriraj Singh taunted Lalu and asked him to recite Hanuman Chalisa for some peace of mind.
When asked about the impact PK and Lalu going to make in Bihar politics, Patna-based political expert Dr. Sanjay Kumar said, “Lalu Prasad is important in the context of the recent Iftar politics in which Nitish had also participated and also met Tejashwi Yadav and Rabri Devi. Some people in Bihar believe that once Lalu returns to Patna, he will play his cards and take the Nitish-Tejashwi meeting to the next level. There are chances that Lalu may play the role of a game-changer since Iftar politics have created ripples in the political sphere of the state.”
Talking about Prashant Kishor, he added, ''As far as Prashant Kishor is concerned, he too will remain the talk-of-the-town because he has already announced to embark on a 3000 km foot-march across Bihar from West Champaran on Gandhi Jayanti. For now, he may have ruled out the formation of any political party but sooner or later he will plunge into active politics. From then on, he will be keenly watched by all political leaders since he could give shape to the Third Front in the state. Adding to it, PK knows the strengths and weaknesses of BJP and JDU leaders but the only challenge for him is to redefine the caste-ridden political scenario of Bihar,"
Unlike other politicians, Lalu is blessed with the gift of the gab and he can use it to provoke his rivals to ensure that they lose their control and issue statements that could work to his advantage.
Giving a political perspective on PK and Lalu's entry, Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee member and spokesperson of the party Kuntal Krishna said, “PK is not planning political mobilization or political movements. What he is doing is an event that might be a curtain-raiser for his political activities but politically sensitive Bihar will not buy into his events. PK might be a topic for discussion at the breakfast table but by noon, real political issues will come to the fore. As far as Lalu Prasad Yadav is concerned, he is still the fulcrum of politics in Bihar. The Biharis might oppose him or support him but no one can ignore him. Lalu's mere presence in the state is enough to be the center of all political talks in Bihar.”
However, downplaying the role-play of Lalu and PK, BJP OBC Morcha national general secretary-cum-spokesperson Dr. Nikhil Anand said, “We do not pay attention to the likes of Pushpam Priya Choudhary and Prashant Kishor. PK is also going to meet the same fate as Pushpam. She ensured that her party contested the Bihar assembly election where she forfeited deposits on all the seats and got fewer votes than NOTA. There are political parties and leaders who are prompting him to launch a political party to help their cause. He is nothing but a political middleman and a political broker who wants to reincarnate himself as a political leader which is not going to happen in Bihar."
On Lalu's re-emergence, Anand further said, “Lalu Ji is a respected leader but he is in the last leg of his political career. At present, he is a worried person because there is discontent within his family as well as the party. Lalu Ji has not been able to successfully shift the baton to his son Tejashwi Yadav as Tej Pratap is raising his voice against the leadership. Laluji is a desperate person who is losing everything and politics is going out of his hands. We don't think that his presence in Bihar will make any impact. Let RJD first resolve their family dispute then only, Laluji can think about anything else.”
