Political significance of Prashant Kishor’s participation in the youth movement against the allegations of rigging and paper leak in BPSC examination.
Prashant Kishore (PK), who contested the Bihar Assembly by-elections with big ambitions, is looking for the shoulder of the youth after the crushing defeat of his Jan Suraj Party. His leap into the alleged paper leak-rigging in BPSC is being linked to this. Assembly elections are to be held in Bihar this year and his party is preparing to contest elections on all the seats in the state. Prashant Kishore, famous as an election strategist, wants to register his presence in the assembly elections at any cost.
Last year, Prashant Kishor’s party could not open its account in the by-elections of four assembly seats, but its candidates stood third in three seats, Belaganj, Imamganj and Tarari. The fight at Imamganj was interesting. There the RJD candidate lost by about six thousand votes while the Jan Suraj candidate secured more than 37 thousand votes. This really gives a political message. Anyway, PK has prepared election strategies for regional and national parties in various states of the country. Since the 2014 Lok Sabha elections in the wake of Narendra Modi wave, Prashant Kishor has established the success of his election strategy in Bihar, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Delhi.
In the upcoming assembly elections, the BPSC paper leak case has given PK an opportunity to attack the youth. When PK joined the movement to support the students, he also sought the support of Congress and RJD. Sat on fast unto death in front of Gandhiji’s statue at Gandhi Maidan in Patna. Formed a 51-member Satyagraha Committee of youth. Were arrested. After the court’s refusal to grant conditional bail, an order was obtained to release him unconditionally by the evening. This also has its own political implications. Even before announcing the formation of Jan Suraj Party, PK had toured the entire Bihar and held meetings up to the Panchayat level to gauge the mood of the people. Obviously, from this PK’s intentions and his future plans can be understood.
In the BPSC case, Prashant Kishore alleges that jobs have been sold at the rate of Rs 1.5 crore and this is a scam of more than Rs 1000 crore. Jan Suraj Party has filed a petition in the Patna High Court demanding cancellation of the 70th BPSC examination and re-examination. Actually, 4.83 lakh youth had registered for the 70th Combined Preliminary Examination of BPSC in which more than 3.25 lakh students appeared for the examination. When candidates raised their voice for cancellation of the examination due to irregularities at Bapu Examination Center in Patna, BPSC conducted re-examination at 912 centers including Bapu Examination Centre, however, the Commission rejected the demand of canceling the entire examination. BPSC Chairman Parmar Ravi Manubhai and senior Nitish cabinet minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary have rejected the paper leak. The Commission has also sent a legal notice to Prashant Kishor regarding allegations of corruption against the Commission.
Paper leak is not new to Bihar. According to the DIG of Economic Offenses Unit, EOU is investigating 10 paper leak cases since 2012. About five hundred and fifty people have been arrested in these cases, investigation is ongoing. In recent years, examinations of teacher recruitment, constable recruitment, Amin recruitment and BPSC combined preliminary examination got canceled due to paper leak in Bihar. Recently, there was a lot of discussion about Nalanda gang and Bihar regarding NEET exam paper leak. People still remember the medical examination and Ranjit Don of Nalanda. After a long wait, the frustration of the youth is turning into anger due to the opportunity of appointment examination and such malpractices in it. PK wants to capitalize on this dissatisfaction. They are already targeting the minorities.
During his two-year long padayatra in Bihar, RJD and JDU were mostly his targets. In many meetings he has promised the Muslims tickets in the assembly or more than that as per their population. It is clear from this that RJD is mainly the target. During the latest agitation, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was also taken to task and said that Nitish Kumar is physically and mentally tired. The real test of his party will be in the 2025 elections, if he proves to be a double-edged sword then the picture of Bihar may look different.
