The Prashant Kishor Phenomenon, Techno-Populism and the Search for a New Political Idiom in Bihar
In the sprawling, complex theater of Bihar’s politics, a new protagonist has been steadily walking his way into the public consciousness. Prashant Kishor, once the celebrated backroom strategist who crafted electoral victories for leaders as diverse as Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, and M.K. Stalin, has now stepped onto the main stage. His 665-day padyatra, a staggering trek covering 2,697 villages, is more than a political campaign; it is a physical and symbolic undertaking that seeks to traverse not just the geography of Bihar, but the very contours of its post-Mandal political soul. His rise reflects a profound churn in Bihar’s democracy, posing a critical question: Is the state, long governed by the politics of identity and patronage, finally ready for a politics of technocratic efficiency and aspirational individualism?
The Political Evolution of Bihar: From Dignity to Delivery
To understand the space Kishor seeks to occupy, one must first understand the two dominant political waves that have shaped modern Bihar. The first was led by Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose reign marked the triumphant ascendancy of social justice. This was a politics of dignity and recognition. It was about empowering the backward and marginalized castes, giving them a voice and a stake in the power structure they had been historically denied. Lalu’s politics was visceral, charismatic, and deeply symbolic, even if it came at the cost of administrative and economic development—a phase scholar Jeffrey Witsoe termed “democracy against development.”
The second wave was led by Nitish Kumar, who promised to reconcile this hard-won dignity with tangible governance and delivery. His tenures focused on building roads, restoring law and order, and implementing welfare schemes. He represented a form of bureaucratic rationality, attempting to graft good governance onto the sturdy trunk of social justice.
Prashant Kishor now positions himself as the logical bridge between these two eras. He is not repudiating social justice; instead, he is arguing that recognition without economic opportunity is an empty promise. His campaign represents a new strain of techno-populism—populist in its tone and direct connection with the people, yet technocratic in its proposed methods and solutions. He embodies the shift from a politics of collective identity to one of individual betterment, declaring that Bihar’s pervasive culture of bakaiti (idle talk) must yield to a new culture of productivity.
The Allure of the Outsider: A Fantasy of Politics Rebooted
A significant part of Kishor’s appeal lies in his perceived identity as an outsider. To many Biharis, he is a figure who has returned from the rarefied world of global institutions, the Prime Minister’s Office, and high-stakes election war rooms. He carries the aura of someone who knows the system well enough to fix it but is not corrupted by it. His personal story—a self-made, upper-caste boy from Buxar who achieved national fame on his own merit—resonates deeply with a generation of young Biharis for whom migration is often the only perceived path to mobility.
His slogan, “Vote for your children’s future,” is a masterful blend of moral purpose and pragmatic appeal. It bypasses the traditional appeals to caste and community, speaking directly to the universal aspiration for a better life. By taking politically bold stances, such as opposing the state’s deeply unpopular alcohol prohibition policy and pledging to rehabilitate migrant labourers, he speaks a language of economic reform and common sense that often eludes ideologically rigid parties. His popularity, therefore, is as much a reflection of Bihar’s fatigue with political insiders and dynastic complacency as it is an endorsement of his specific policies. It represents a collective “fantasy of politics rebooted through technocratic competence alone.”
The Jan Suraj Project: Visibility Versus Entrenched Power
Despite the immense curiosity he has generated, the political outfit born from his padyatra, Jan Suraj, remains more visible than entrenched. Its electoral debut in the November 2024 by-polls was symbolic of this dichotomy. The party polled between 5,000 and 37,000 votes across four constituencies—enough to mark its presence as a serious entity, but far from enough to alter outcomes.
Kishor’s strategy for the 2025 assembly elections appears to be one of a calculated disruptor. His plan to field a large number of candidates from Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) and minorities is a direct attempt to nibble at the core social bases of both the JD(U) and the RJD, while his aspirational message aims to attract disaffected youth from the BJP’s support base. His stated goal of winning over 125 seats is likely a piece of “performance politics”—an assertion of inevitability designed to build momentum and attract cadre, rather than a realistic projection. His true influence in 2025 may lie not in forming a government, but in reshaping the electoral field, playing the role of a spoiler and forcing traditional parties to recalibrate their strategies.
The fundamental challenge for Kishor is that Bihar’s politics is not a blank slate. It is a dense web of relational networks, caste intermediaries, and local patronage systems. A long walk, no matter how impressive, can create recognition, but it cannot automatically command the deep-seated trust that decides votes at the booth level. This trust is built over generations, and Kishor’s organization, for all its digital savvy, is racing against time to build it from the ground up.
The Youth and The Migrant: A Powerful, Yet Detached, Constituency
Kishor’s most potent resource is the semi-urban, educated youth of Bihar. This is a “half-politicised” generation—aware of the state’s entrenched social hierarchies but profoundly impatient with its economic stagnation. They see in Kishor a figure who has seemingly transcended caste boundaries through merit, professionalism, and exposure to the wider world. He speaks directly to their sense of alienation and their aspiration for a governance model unburdened by the legacies of Lalu and Nitish.
However, this admiration faces a critical logistical hurdle. A significant portion of these young, aspirational supporters are migrants, studying or working outside Bihar. While they may champion Kishor on social media, their physical detachment from the state makes them difficult to mobilize for the granular, day-to-day work of political campaigning and, crucially, for turning out to vote on election day. Kishor’s challenge is to convert this widespread admiration into a functioning, localized organization capable of standing guard at each of Bihar’s 70,000+ polling booths.
The Fluid Political Moment and Kishor’s Diagnostic Role
Kishor’s rise coincides with a period of unusual fluidity in Bihar’s politics. The old anchors are still in place, but their hold is shifting. Lalu Prasad remains the moral anchor for the RJD’s traditional base, but his health and direct control are waning. Nitish Kumar, despite his diminished popularity and perceived political opportunism, still presides over a vast administrative network built over two decades. The BJP continues to benefit from his machinery and the overarching presence of Narendra Modi, whose campaign appeal can amplify the NDA’s reach, even if it doesn’t always localize trust. Meanwhile, Tejashwi Yadav represents a generational transition within the RJD, attempting to course-correct by marrying his father’s politics of dignity with a new vocabulary of delivery and jobs.
In this complex field, Jan Suraj functions as both a disruptive and a diagnostic tool. Its performance will be a crucial referendum on the mood of the Bihar electorate. A strong showing will signal a readiness to move beyond legacy politics; a weak one will confirm that enduring social hierarchies and local networks continue to trump the impulse for technocratic change. Regardless of the seat tally, Kishor’s campaign is already applying pressure on traditional parties, potentially forcing them to modernize their communication, candidate selection, and grassroots engagement strategies.
Conclusion: The Striding Man and the Incremental March of Change
Ultimately, Prashant Kishor’s significance in the 2025 Bihar elections may lie less in his final electoral tally and more in what his campaign reveals about the evolving nature of the state’s democracy. It has exposed a deep-seated fatigue with familiar hierarchies and a cautious, yet palpable, curiosity for political reinvention. He has successfully tapped into a desire for a politics that is unmediated by dynasty, cronyism, and what is perceived as empty rhetoric.
However, Bihar remains India’s ultimate democratic laboratory, where experiments only succeed when they are painstakingly rooted in its complex local realities. The state’s social arithmetic still privileges proximity and trust over a purely technocratic promise. Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj may not transform this equation overnight. The “Striding Man of Bihar”—part technocrat, part pilgrim—is not necessarily heralding a new beginning. Rather, he is a powerful reminder that in Bihar, change is never a revolution. It is incremental, it is negotiated, and its script is always written through a constant, dynamic dialogue between the old and the new.
Q&A: Unpacking the Prashant Kishor Phenomenon
1. What is “techno-populism” and how does it define Prashant Kishor’s campaign?
Techno-populism is a political style that combines a populist, direct-to-people tone with technocratic, solution-oriented policy proposals. Kishor’s campaign embodies this: he walks among the people like a classic populist, but his pitch is not based on charisma or caste alone. Instead, he promises data-driven, efficient governance, education, and jobs, positioning himself as a manager who can fix Bihar’s problems through competence rather than ideology.
2. How does Kishor’s appeal as an “outsider” help him in Bihar’s political landscape?
Kishor’s outsider status is appealing because he is seen as untainted by the perceived corruption, dynastic politics, and complacency of Bihar’s established parties. His background as a successful strategist who worked with national and global leaders gives him an aura of competence and a higher level of expertise. He represents a fantasy of a “politics rebooted”—a clean break from the system that many voters believe has failed them.
3. What is the main obstacle preventing Kishor’s popularity from translating into electoral wins?
The primary obstacle is the disconnect between visibility and entrenched power. Bihar’s politics is decided by dense, local networks of caste intermediaries, village leaders, and patronage systems. While Kishor’s padyatra has created widespread name recognition, building the deep, booth-level trust and organizational machinery required to secure votes is a much slower and more difficult task. His support among migrant youth also poses a logistical challenge for voter turnout.
4. What is Kishor’s strategy to break the hold of established parties like the RJD and JD(U)?
His strategy is multi-pronged. By fielding many candidates from Extremely Backward Castes (EBCs) and minorities, he aims to splinter the core social bases of the RJD and JD(U). Simultaneously, his message of aspirational development and jobs is designed to attract younger, disaffected voters from the BJP. His goal is not necessarily to win a majority immediately but to act as a significant spoiler and reshape the political landscape.
5. What does Kishor’s campaign reveal about the current state of Bihar’s democracy?
Kishor’s rise is a symptom of a deeper churn. It reveals a growing electorate, particularly among the youth, that is fatigued with traditional identity politics and is curious about an alternative focused on governance and individual aspiration. However, his campaign also serves as a test. Its performance will diagnose whether this appetite for change is powerful enough to overcome Bihar’s enduring reliance on caste-based social networks and local relationships, or if these traditional structures remain the ultimate arbiter of political power.
