“A Stupendous Achievement if Jan Suraaj gets 15% of the vote”: Gen Sec, Jan Suraaj

Video Description

"A stupendous achievement if Jan Suraaj gets 15% of the vote": Pavan Varma, General Secretary, Jan Suraaj, to Karan Thapar for The Wire. .......................................... The General Secretary and Chief National Spokesperson of the Jan Suraaj Party has said it would be “a stupendous achievement” if the party get 15% of the vote in the forthcoming Bihar elections. However, Pavan Varma says that it’s possible that Jan Suraaj could end up with over 40% of the vote. In a 30-minute interview for The Wire, Pavan Varma, who is also an author, diplomat and former Rajya Sabha MP, says Jan Suraaj will damage all three of Bihar’s existing established parties i.e. Nitish Kumar’s JD(U), Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD and Narendra Modi’s BJP. He says it’s possible that JD(U) itself may not cross 25-30 seats. Speaking about Prashant Kishor himself, Mr. Varma said that he has made a lifelong commitment to politics in Bihar which will not alter even if Jan Suraaj doesn’t win the elections. Mr. Varma said of Prashant Kishor: “He has said that his life’s ambition, everything that he has achieved or will achieve, is now committed to bringing about change in Bihar and making it among the ten most economically advanced states. If that takes another five years of effort so be it or more. His life is dedicated to bringing about change in Bihar and providing a moksh from these opportunist alliances which have done nothing for the state.” I will stop there. If you want to understand the strategy and future prospects of the Jan Suraaj Party and Prashant Kishor himself this is an interview you definitely should see. Other than Prashant Kishor, no one understands Jan Suraaj better than Mr. Varma. To help you, I will give you the main questions. Here they are: 1) I want to focus this interview on Prashant Kishor and the Jan Suraaj Party. So let me start by asking why has he decided to enter politics, form his own party and contest the Bihar elections in such a big way? 2) In your assessment how is his campaign doing? 3) Let me quote from yesterday’s Hindu (29/10) “despite the hype on social media and in some sections of conventional media, there’s little evidence of interest in the party on the ground”. How do you respond to that? 4) Prashant Kishor’s is the only party that’s contesting all 243 seats. How well chosen and how loyal to him are his candidates? Three have already ditched him for the BJP. 5) Prashant Kishor has also made a conscious effort to ensure that the candidates he fields proportionately represent all the different demographic groups and castes in Bihar. No one’s really done this before. Why do you think it will make a difference? 6) Prashant Kishor is making a great play for the migrant Bihari worker. He promises that if his party wins it will create enough jobs so that Biharis don’t have to migrate to other states for work. By some counts 20% of Bihar’s electors could be migrant labour. What sort of response is he getting from them? 7) Prashant Kishor has announced that he’s not contesting elections himself. Was that a wise decision? Or is he denying his party the momentum his own candidature would give it? 8) I don’t intend this to be an unfair question but, at this moment as you perceive the situation, how many seats do you think he will win? Prashant Kishor himself has said he’ll either get under 10 or over a 150. Do you share that view? 9) Is it possible to say which of the three big parties Jan Suraaj will most damage? Could it be Nitish Kumar’s JDU, Tejashwi Yadav’s RJD or Modi’s BJP? 10) What sort of impact do you believe Nitish Kumar’s Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana will have? When something similar happened in Maharashtra last year, the Ladki Bahin Yojana won the election for the NDA. Could that be replicated in Bihar? 11) Let me come back to Prashant Kishor. I know he claims he’ll either do extremely well or extremely poorly. But if he ends up with 30 or 40 seats what role do you believe he will play in Bihar politics? Is he willing to be the kingmaker party? Or will he insist on sitting in the opposition? 12) How do you see Prashant Kishor’s future if he doesn’t win the elections? Will he continue in politics for years, if not decades, to come? In other words, is this a career-long commitment? Here is the link to the interview: Join The Wire's Youtube Membership and get exclusive content, member-only emojis, live interaction with The Wire's founders, editors and reporters and much more. Memberships to The Wire Crew start at Rs 89/month. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChWtJey46brNr7qHQpN6KLQ/join