Police personnel were on an indefinite hunger strike at Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Monday demanding cancellation of the BPSC 70th Combined Comprehensive Examination (CCE) exam over the alleged paper leak, along with Jan Suraj Party leader Prashant. Mr. Kishore was detained. |Photo courtesy of ANI
Political strategist and Jan Suraji Party founder Prashant Kishor has unveiled a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the historic Gandhi Maidan in Patna to support the protesting Bihar Public Service Commission. Sitting in a fasted state below – Comprehensive (Preliminary) Competitive Examination (CCE) aspirants were arrested in the early hours of December 13th for a re-examination of the preliminary examination held on December 13th. Monday (January 6, 2024). He was subsequently sued by a local court, but the case was granted with conditions, but he refused to sign it and opted for a two-week prison sentence.
Later in the evening, he received unconditional bail from the court and said he would continue his fasting protest, with a venue to be announced on Tuesday (7 January 2024). When they come out of prison, they will continue their fast, saying, “Unka man bada jayega (their morale will be high).”
Kishor was clearly referring to the NDA government led by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. But Kishore, a brilliant political strategist, seems to have the poll-bound politics of the state in mind. Bihar assembly elections are scheduled for October-November this year.
Mr Kishore had been looking for an opportunity to prove his name ever since he formally founded the Jan Slaazi Party amid much fanfare and high promises at a veterinary clinic in Patna on October 2, 2024. A month later, his newly founded party contested all four seats – Belagunj, Imamganj, Tarali and Ramgarh – in by-polls. While launching his party, Kishore had announced that he would hand over the by-polls to candidates from other mainstream parties. However, the results were upsetting for Kishore as his party’s candidates lost all four seats. Putting on a brave face, Kishore said his party had done well by winning an encouraging vote in the by-polls.
After the poll results came out, Mr. Kishor was looking for new opportunities for political activity in the run-up to state elections in the coming months. And the moment a section of BPSC aspirants staged a sit-in in Patna’s Gardani Bagh area demanding reconsideration of their preliminary exams over alleged ‘document leaks’, Kishore arrived at the venue and extended support to the protest movement. Ta. Aspirant.
The exam was conducted at a total of 912 centers across the state for 3.228 lakh BPSC (CCE) candidates, but the candidates claimed that the question papers had been “leaked” and refused to conduct the exam. The Bapu Pariksha Center (Bapu Examination Center) was the only one that continued to protest. Re-examination. However, candidates who appeared for the exam at other centers in the state said there was no cheating and the exam was conducted in a peaceful and proper manner.
However, Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Tejashwi Yadav, Independent MP from Purnea Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav and other opposition parties came out in support of the protesting BPSC (CCE) aspirants. It was not the way Mr. Kishore had come up with it. On January 2, 2025, he quietly boarded a taxi and sat in a fasting position under the statue of Gandhi at Patna’s historic Gandhi Maidan. Gradually, the number of volunteers who protested on the spot increased.
Veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan (popularly known as JP) had led the students’ JP movement against state government mismanagement and corruption from the Gandhi Maidan in 1974.
“Mr. Kishore would have thought of leading another student movement from the same place to make his mark in state politics and as a former political strategist, he would have supported Anna (Hazaré) type protests in Patna. I would have thought that I would wake him up. “However, this time the strategy failed as it was a fake ground,” said a BPSC aspirant who said on condition of anonymity that he had “no problem at all” in appearing for the preliminary exam at the centre.
The next day, a luxury vanity van parked near Mr Kishore’s protest venue attracted the attention of media personnel. “I am fasting here. When I go home to relieve myself, journalists will ask whether I went to eat or take a nap,” Kishore said. spoke. The buzz in town was that the vanity van was worth Rs 2,000 crore and was owned by a former MP who lent it to Kishore.
Meanwhile, the BPSC conducted a re-examination for Bapu Examination Center candidates on January 4, 2025, while Kishore was on a fast. It is said that the exam passed peacefully and more candidates participated in the re-examination at the center than when they took the exam on December 13, 2024. Kishore continued his protest and the district administration slapped two FIRs against him and other candidates. “For protesting in restricted areas and disrupting government operations.”
Early on Monday morning, district authorities forcibly came to pick up Kishore. A video circulating on social media showed him being slapped by a police officer. He was later granted bail at a local court, where the bond was set at Rs 25,000, with the condition that he would not repeat the same incident.
Kishore refused to sign a conditional bail bond and chose to go to jail, saying, “Even if I am in jail, I will continue my fast.” However, later his lawyer Kumar Amit re-argued the bail application and the court granted Mr Kishore unconditional bail. He came out late in the evening and addressed members of the media, declaring that he would continue his fast, but that the venue and time would be announced on January 7.
However, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar remained unfazed by the developments in Patna and continued the ongoing pragati (growth) yatra in Vaishali district and announced several welfare schemes.
For Kishor, a former political strategist, politics seems to be a strong bond and he is not willing to miss a moment to grab the limelight in poll-bound Bihar.
issued – January 7, 2025 2:53 AM IST
