Prashant Kishor’s Sharpest Attack Yet: “Lalu’s Politics Is Known to All of Bihar”

Calling out dynastic politics, PK pits Jan Suraaj against BJP while dismissing RJD as irrelevant in 2025 race

Raj Chaubey June 22, 2025Last Updated: June 22, 2025

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Reviewed & Published by HH News Desk

Patna, June 22: In a political theatre as old and bruised as Bihar’s, Prashant Kishor has tossed a grenade into the courtyard. Not with flamboyant stunts or backroom plots, but with a few well-aimed words — dismissive, cutting, and rooted in lived grievance. His latest tirade against Lalu Prasad Yadav and the RJD isn’t just a personal attack; it’s a direct challenge to the foundational myths of a political dynasty that once defined backward-caste assertion in India.

Kishor’s Offensive: The Fall of the “Robin Hood” Legacy?

“Entire Bihar is aware of Lalu Yadav’s mentality.” Kishor’s statement wasn’t just criticism. It was accusation wrapped in familiarity — the kind that stings because it’s shared. Lalu, once hailed as the rural Robin Hood who gave voice to the voiceless, now stands framed by Kishor as the original architect of Bihar’s political feudalism. The reference to Rabri Devi’s elevation to Chief Minister in 1997 — a move that stunned even Lalu’s staunchest allies — evokes one of the most dramatic moments in Indian political history. That decision, made from behind bars, signaled both audacity and dynastic entitlement. Kishor has now dug up that moment as symbolic of all that’s broken in the state’s leadership.

And then came the knockout: Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu’s heir apparent, is “a ninth-fail boy being paraded as king while educated youth fight for peon jobs.” The punch landed. For millions of frustrated, unemployed Bihari youth, the contrast is real. Tejashwi’s academic record has always been a point of quiet discomfort within RJD ranks — now it’s front-page politics.

Drawing New Battlelines: Not Third Front, But First Principles

What Kishor is doing — and here’s the real shift — isn’t mere opposition. He’s redefining the playing field. By stating the 2025 Assembly election will be a “direct contest between Jan Suraaj and the NDA,” he isn’t just sidelining RJD. He’s effectively calling it irrelevant. This isn’t a third front trying to squeeze in. It’s a self-declared new axis.

At his Vaishali rally, he placed Congress, RJD, and JD(U) on the same bench — relics of a political era that promised but never delivered. “They ruled for decades,” he said. “And what does Bihar have to show for it?” It’s not an unfair question. Bihar remains near the bottom in most human development indices, and the exodus of labour to Delhi, Mumbai, and Punjab has become almost cultural.

Unlike most regional challengers who ride caste or religion, Kishor is trying something riskier — meritocracy and governance as identity. Jobs. Schools. Dignity. These aren’t slogans, they’re flashpoints in every Bihari household where sons migrate and daughters drop out.

Political Class Reacts: Threat Detected

The reactions have been immediate, and revealing. JD(U) minister Ashok Choudhary, once considered among Nitish Kumar’s inner circle, has slapped a defamation suit on Kishor for alleging bribes in ticket distribution. It’s a predictable move, and one that signals just how seriously Kishor is being taken inside JD(U). Kishor, unfazed, replied with the arrogance of someone who knows his words resonate: “I’m only repeating what people say in villages.”

More intriguingly, the BJP filed a cybercrime complaint, accusing Kishor’s team of running fake pro-BJP social media accounts. Whether or not the accusation holds, it’s a curious charge from a party that has itself mastered digital mobilization. But it suggests this: Kishor’s digital outreach, especially among first-time voters, is starting to sting.

Can Jan Suraaj Cut Through Caste?

The real question is structural. Bihar doesn’t vote on speeches. It votes on identity. Caste alliances, local loyalties, and muscle memory drive much of the electoral math. Kishor knows this. His gambit lies in shifting the discourse — from caste arithmetic to aspirational calculus. If he can convince just enough people that jobs matter more than jaati, he might break the old formula.

Still, the task is Herculean. Both Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar didn’t survive this long without knowing how to read Bihar’s social soil. The RJD still commands deep loyalty among Yadavs and Muslims. JD(U) remains embedded in the Kurmi-Koeri belt. And BJP has successfully polarized a section of upper castes and non-Yadav OBCs. Kishor, with no legacy vote bank, is betting on disgust and desperation as his entry pass.

The Stakes in 2025: A Political System on Trial

What makes this moment volatile is not just Kishor’s ambition, but the vacuum he’s exploiting. Nitish’s credibility has withered after repeated U-turns. Lalu is aging, and Tejashwi — for all his crowds — hasn’t shown ideological clarity or administrative vision. Meanwhile, Delhi’s BJP leadership sees Bihar as a crucial frontier ahead of 2029.

In this churn, Jan Suraaj is trying to sell the idea that Bihar can start over — that its youth don’t have to inherit their father’s politics or their grandfather’s compromises. It’s an alluring idea, even if untested.

If Kishor fails, he’ll be remembered as a smart man who overestimated Bihar’s hunger for reform. But if he succeeds — even partially — he might set off the most dramatic political realignment the state has seen since Mandal politics turned it upside down in the ’90s.

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Author Profile

Raj Chaubey

Reporting Fellow at Hindustan Herald

Raj Chaubey is a Reporting Fellow at Hindustan Herald, specializing in political and geopolitical news. As a student at Delhi University, Raj combines academic rigor with a commitment to investigative journalism, aiming to uncover the broader implications of current events. His daily articles strive to offer our audience a deeper understanding of complex political landscapes and their global connections.