The ruling alliance partners BJP and JD(U) in Bihar are taking on each-other one on one, over Patna University Students Union (PUSU) elections. The BJP leaders are accusing that poll strategist and JD(U) national vice-President Prashant Kishor is interfering in the elections.
Though the BJP did not take any name, its press release attacking the police, the administration and “certain event management professionals hired to influence student union elections at the Patna University”, makes it evident that they were indirectly attacking Prashant Kishor, who is said to have been taking a keen interest in bringing youths to the JD(U). Prashant Kishor was appointed the national vice-president of the party within weeks of becoming a primary member.
Recently, while campaigning for the poll, students belonging to Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is affiliated to the RSS, had a clash with JD(U)’s student wing leaders.
Later, the JD(U) student wing leaders lodged a complaint with the local police station against ABVP students. The police immediately raided the local ABVP office to arrest those named in the case.
The police raid at the ABVP office irked the State BJP leadership and they pressed four local party legislators to come out in support of the ABVP on the incident. Condemning the raid, BJP MLC Sanjay Paswan and MLAs Sanjeev Chaurasia, Arun Sinha and Nitin Nabin issued a statement, claiming that ABVP candidates and supporters are being “terrorised by the police and the administration”. They accused that police was harassing ABVP candidates on the instructions of ‘event manager’ Prashant Kishor. They also advised Kishor to stay from the elections in University. The BJP leaders asked the Bihar police and administration to stop dancing to the tune of Kishor.
The BJP Youth Morcha too came out in support of the ABVP and protested against the government at the Income-Tax intersection on Sunday in Patna.
Former poll-strategist Prashant Kishor, who had joined JD(U) in September 2018, was appointed as the national vice president of the JD(U) by Nitish Kumar the following month.
He had joined the JD(U) amidst speculations that he would be contesting the 2019 general assembly elections. Kishor is credited with delivering key election win for BJP in 2014 and also for Nitish Kumar in the 2015 Bihar elections.
Prashant Kishor shot to fame in 2014, when it was reported that Kishor’s Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) helped BJP with the historic 2014 elections. He later worked with the Mahagathbandan in Bihar and is credited to have brought all the opposition parties together in Bihar to script a massive victory of JD(U), RJD and Congress combine in 2015.
Interestingly, Kishor’s election consultancy I-PAC has been working for YSR Congress party’s YS Jaganmohan Reddy from the last two years.
