YouTuber Manish Kashyap joins Prashant Kishor's party month after quitting BJP
Kishor targets illiteracy, corruption, current political leadership in Bihar
Kashyap quit BJP citing ineffectiveness, lack of protection last month
Months ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, famous YouTuber Manish Kashyap on Monday joined poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) on Monday. Kashyap joined the JSP at an event organised at the Bapu Bhavan in Bihar's capital city of Patna a month after he quit the BJP.
"Famous YouTuber Manish Kashyap has joined Jan Suraaj," the party wrote on X, sharing several photos showing party chief Kishor welcoming him into the party fold.
Kishor, who played a pivotal role in the BJP's successful poll campaign during the 2014 general elections as a strategist, heaped praise on Kashyap, who is known for raising issues of public interest despite political backlash.
"Manish Kashyap is not just a YouTuber for Jan Suraj, nor is he a former BJP leader, but he is a son of Bihar who has carved out his identity through his own strength, hard work, and wisdom, and wants to do something for the state," Kishor was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"Jan Suraj is a system that provides opportunities to every young man or individual who wants to contribute to Bihar. If he has joined Jan Suraaj, I see a significant role for him in playing a major part in this campaign for change in Bihar moving forward," he added.
This came a month after Kashyap quit the BJP, saying he felt let down by the party and suggested that his role within it had become ineffective.
In May, Kashyap had an altercation with junior doctors at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) when he reached there to plead for a patient, after which they allegedly locked him in a room and beat him.
"I couldn't protect myself while being in the BJP. How can I help others?' he said during a Facebook live session, explaining his reasons for stepping away.
Reacting to Kashyap joining his party, Prashant Kishor said that the coming together of the two young leaders will hold the key to JSP's poll campaign in the coming days.
"This is not just the coming together of two young men, but of thousands of youngsters who want to bring about a change in Bihar and get rid of the Lalu, Nitish and Modi rule. The forces who want Bihar to get rid of illiteracy, corruption, and economic exodus have come together," Prashant Kishor said while speaking to India Today TV.
The JPS chief said that the party is providing an opportunity to those who had no choice but to vote for the JDU, RJD and the BJP due to the lack of alternatives in the state.
While Prashant Kishor has constantly attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's government in Bihar and the RJD's past reigns, Kashyap has been at the receiving end of the backlash by respective governments for criticising them by raising issues of public interest, exposing civic and government apathy. JSP IN BIHAR ELECTIONS
Prashant Kishor, who launched his Jan Suraaj Party in October last year, has vowed that the JSP will contest all 243 seats in Bihar and will not join either the NDA alliance of the BJP, JDU and LJP or the Mahagathbandhan of the RJD, Congress and Left parties.
Over recent months, Kishor has raised his voice against illiteracy, unemployment, corruption, and crime in the state and has attacked the Nitish Kumar government for not being able to find a solution to them.
The 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly is scheduled to go to the polls later this year, most likely in October or November. The term of the Bihar Assembly will conclude on November 22.
Months ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, famous YouTuber Manish Kashyap on Monday joined poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) on Monday. Kashyap joined the JSP at an event organised at the Bapu Bhavan in Bihar's capital city of Patna a month after he quit the BJP.
"Famous YouTuber Manish Kashyap has joined Jan Suraaj," the party wrote on X, sharing several photos showing party chief Kishor welcoming him into the party fold.
Kishor, who played a pivotal role in the BJP's successful poll campaign during the 2014 general elections as a strategist, heaped praise on Kashyap, who is known for raising issues of public interest despite political backlash.
"Manish Kashyap is not just a YouTuber for Jan Suraj, nor is he a former BJP leader, but he is a son of Bihar who has carved out his identity through his own strength, hard work, and wisdom, and wants to do something for the state," Kishor was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"Jan Suraj is a system that provides opportunities to every young man or individual who wants to contribute to Bihar. If he has joined Jan Suraaj, I see a significant role for him in playing a major part in this campaign for change in Bihar moving forward," he added.
This came a month after Kashyap quit the BJP, saying he felt let down by the party and suggested that his role within it had become ineffective.
In May, Kashyap had an altercation with junior doctors at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) when he reached there to plead for a patient, after which they allegedly locked him in a room and beat him.
"I couldn't protect myself while being in the BJP. How can I help others?' he said during a Facebook live session, explaining his reasons for stepping away.
Reacting to Kashyap joining his party, Prashant Kishor said that the coming together of the two young leaders will hold the key to JSP's poll campaign in the coming days.
"This is not just the coming together of two young men, but of thousands of youngsters who want to bring about a change in Bihar and get rid of the Lalu, Nitish and Modi rule. The forces who want Bihar to get rid of illiteracy, corruption, and economic exodus have come together," Prashant Kishor said while speaking to India Today TV.
The JPS chief said that the party is providing an opportunity to those who had no choice but to vote for the JDU, RJD and the BJP due to the lack of alternatives in the state.
While Prashant Kishor has constantly attacked Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's government in Bihar and the RJD's past reigns, Kashyap has been at the receiving end of the backlash by respective governments for criticising them by raising issues of public interest, exposing civic and government apathy. JSP IN BIHAR ELECTIONS
Prashant Kishor, who launched his Jan Suraaj Party in October last year, has vowed that the JSP will contest all 243 seats in Bihar and will not join either the NDA alliance of the BJP, JDU and LJP or the Mahagathbandhan of the RJD, Congress and Left parties.
Over recent months, Kishor has raised his voice against illiteracy, unemployment, corruption, and crime in the state and has attacked the Nitish Kumar government for not being able to find a solution to them.
The 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly is scheduled to go to the polls later this year, most likely in October or November. The term of the Bihar Assembly will conclude on November 22. Join our WhatsApp Channel
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The Hindu
10 minutes ago
- The Hindu
Battle for Dalit Votes Intensifies in Bihar's Fractured Arena
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The reasons are evident: Dalits make up 19.65 per cent of Bihar's population, according to a caste survey conducted in the State in 2023. Of the State's 243 Assembly constituencies, 38 are reserved for Scheduled Castes (SCs), and Dalit voters also exert significant influence in many general constituencies. Also Read | Bihar's Special Intensive Revision puts 2.93 crore voters at risk of exclusion In a State where identity plays an important role in electoral outcomes, the rising political consciousness and assertiveness of Dalits have made them a crucial electoral force. While their preferences are not uniform, they often align around shared socio-economic conditions, making them a strategic target for all political parties ahead of the upcoming Assembly election. Bihar's political landscape Electoral politics in Bihar is largely defined by two major coalitions: the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan-INDIA combine. The NDA comprises the BJP; the JD(U); the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), or HAM(S); the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), or LJP(RV); and the Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM). The MGB coalition, on the other hand, includes the RJD, the Congress, the Left parties, and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP). Both alliances are anchored in distinct caste-based support structures. The NDA draws strength primarily from the Hindu privileged castes, Kurmis, Kushwahas, and a broad section of the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs). The Mahagathbandhan relies heavily on the Yadav-Muslim vote base. Within the NDA, the JD(U) represents non-Yadav OBCs, especially Kurmis and Kushwahas, along with EBCs, while the BJP primarily appeals to the Hindu privileged castes. The LJP(RV) has been continuously focussed on Paswan/Dusadh votes, which constitutes the largest share of the Dalit vote, while the HAM(S) focusses on Mahadalits, especially Musahars, a segment that is economically extremely poor and marginalised but numerically significant. On the other hand, within the Mahagathbandhan-INDIA coalition, the RJD commands strong support among Yadavs and Muslims, while the Left parties get support from lower economic classes, especially weaker sections among EBCs and SCs. The VIP claims to represent the Nishad community, numerically significantly among EBCs but divided into many sub-castes. The Congress, which had a strong electoral support among Dalits three decades ago, is now making a renewed push to expand its influence within this group. In the last Assembly election, both the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan-INDIA bloc secured nearly equal vote shares. However, the Congress emerged as the weakest link in the opposition alliance. In response, the party has turned its focus to Dalit communities, hoping to rebuild its political relevance in a State that once gave the party one of its tallest Dalit leaders: Babu Jagjivan Ram. Dalit mobilisation in Bihar Both Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh have a significant Dalit electorate, accounting for around one-fifth of their populations. Yet, the trajectory of Dalit mobilisation has differed sharply between the two States. Raushan Sharma, in his PhD thesis titled 'Understanding Ambedkar and Lohia: A Comparative Study of the Politics of Caste in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh', observes that Dalit political and social mobilisation in Uttar Pradesh was significantly shaped by the efforts of the Backward and Minority Communities Employees Federation and the Dalit Shoshit Samaj Sangharsh Samiti, both founded under the leadership of Kanshi Ram, who later established the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). These organisations played a transformative role in advancing the social, economic, and political empowerment of SCs in the State. A key indicator of this progress, Sharma notes, is that Mayawati, a Dalit leader from the BSP, rose to become the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh four times—a remarkable milestone in the country's politics. This wave of Dalit mobilisation in Uttar Pradesh, Sharma argues, drew inspiration from an earlier movement in Maharashtra led by Namdeo Laxman Dhasal, who founded the Dalit Panthers, a radical sociopolitical group inspired by the Black Panther movement in the US. The Dalit Panthers were instrumental in bringing the concerns of the marginalised into mainstream discourse, laying the foundation for broader Dalit assertion across States. Bihar, in contrast, did not witness such an organised or sustained Dalit movement. Although reserved constituencies and reservations in government jobs provided Dalits with formal representation, this did not translate into widespread social or political assertiveness. Also Read | Nitish Kumar: One last hurrah or end of the road? Before the rise of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Dalits were a core support base of the Congress. This loyalty eroded in the 1990s as the emergence of backward-caste politics—led by Janata Party and Janata Dal factions—shifted Dalit allegiances. During this time, Lalu Yadav's RJD gained substantial support from Dalit voters. In parallel, Ram Vilas Paswan, a product of the Janata Dal era, rose to become a nationally prominent Dalit leader. However, over time, his party's influence narrowed, becoming largely confined to Paswan voters. Mahadalit Commission A significant turning point in Dalit politics came during the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government. In 2007, Nitish established the Mahadalit Commission, marking a new phase of Dalit engagement. The commission aimed to identify and uplift the most marginalised subgroups within the Dalit community, particularly those who had not fully benefited from affirmative action. Initially, the Mahadalit category excluded castes such as Mochi, Dhobi, Pasi, and Paswan, who were perceived as relatively better off. However, over time, all non-Paswan Dalits were included in the Mahadalit list. The policy also introduced targeted welfare schemes to empower these groups economically and socially, creating a new layer of identity politics among the Dalits of Bihar. The Lok Sabha election of 2024 saw another shift in Dalit electoral support, with the RJD-led alliance increasing its vote share across the spectrum, recording significant gains among the SCs, as per CSDS Lokniti data. Babu Jagjivan Ram Jagjivan Ram, popularly known as Babuji, was a Dalit icon who held various ministerial portfolios during a long political career. He was instrumental in founding the All India Depressed Classes League, dedicated to achieving equality for Dalits, in 1935. He was also a member of the Constituent Assembly of India. Bihar's electoral landscape has been shaped by over three decades of coalition politics, resulting in a consistent fragmentation of vote share across parties. The last instance of any single party crossing the 30 per cent vote share mark in an Assembly election was in 1985, when the Congress secured 39.3 per cent of the vote. From 2000 to 2020, the fragmentation deepened. In this period, across successive Assembly elections, only twice did any major party cross the 25 per cent vote share threshold, and on both occasions it was the RJD, first in February 2005 and then in 2020. The four principal parties, namely the RJD, the BJP, the JD(U), and the Congress, individually garnered less than 20 per cent of the vote each in most elections. Dalit vote across seats In this highly competitive and fragmented political context, the Dalit vote becomes especially pivotal. To explore Dalit electoral behaviour, we conducted a two-tiered analysis: first, comparison of party-wise vote share in constituencies reserved for SCs. Second, we analysed party-wise support within different layers of the Dalit electorate in the constituencies, varying from below 10 per cent to above 30 per cent. The data revealed a striking pattern: in 1990, over 50 per cent of the votes in reserved constituencies were shared between the Janata Dal and the Congress. However, the dominance of the two parties gradually declined, albeit for different reasons. The Congress experienced a steady fall in Dalit support until 2005. Its vote share remained largely unchanged in 2010, but it rebounded modestly in 2015 and 2020, primarily because it joined opposition alliances. The Janata Dal, meanwhile, was weakened by internal splits. Its legacy vote base was redistributed among the JD(U), the RJD, and the LJP. Over the past decade, the RJD has shown a steady resurgence, particularly among Dalits, while the LJP has faced a continuous decline and has largely been restricted to its core Paswan support base. These shifts are closely linked to the dynamics of alliance politics in Bihar. Strategic alignments have influenced party performance, not only among dominant castes but also within Dalit constituencies. For example, Left parties saw a significant decline up to 2010 but have since experienced renewed support, partly through alliances and increased grassroots mobilisation. Another notable development is the trajectory of the BSP. Between 1990 and 2005, the BSP steadily gained ground, bolstered by Dalit identity politics and the leadership of Kanshi Ram and Mayawati. However, its rise eventually stalled, reflecting the party's limited organisational penetration and appeal in Bihar. The BJP, in contrast, has built a significant support base among the Mochi community, a Dalit sub-caste comparable to the Jatavs in Uttar Pradesh and forming approximately 4 per cent of Bihar's population. This has contributed to the BJP's electoral presence in reserved seats. Going with non-dominant players A particularly important trend in recent elections is that nearly 20 per cent of the votes in reserved constituencies have gone to non-dominant parties, especially in the 2015 and 2020 elections. This suggests a growing disillusionment with major political parties among Dalit voters and points to their willingness to consider alternatives outside the traditional power blocs. We also conducted a separate analysis to examine the support base of the current NDA and Mahagathbandhan constituents across different types of Assembly constituencies, based on the concentration of Dalit voters. Given that the Dalit population is unevenly distributed across the State, we categorised the constituencies into four distinct groups: 1. With less than 10 per cent Dalit electorate 2. With 10-20 per cent Dalit electorate 3. With 20-30 per cent Dalit electorate 4. With more than 30 per cent Dalit electorate This classification allowed us to explore whether variations in the proportion of Dalit voters across constituencies influenced the vote share of the two major coalitions. Charts 3 and 4 provide a comparative analysis of voter support for the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan across the four categories of constituencies based on the proportion of Dalit voters. This segmentation enables us to assess how varying levels of Dalit concentration within constituencies have influenced the electoral performance of the two major alliances in Bihar. Decline in support for NDA The data revealed a notable decline in the NDA's vote share in the 2020 Assembly election across all four categories of constituencies, each defined by different concentrations of Dalit electorates. The drop in support was more than 5 percentage points in each category compared with 2015, indicating a broad-based erosion of Dalit support for the NDA. The steepest decline occurred in constituencies where Dalits account for 20-30 per cent of the electorate, suggesting that this segment has become increasingly disillusioned with the alliance. In contrast, the Mahagathbandhan showed significant gains across all four categories in the 2020 Assembly election relative to 2015. This upward trend suggests that the alliance was more successful in consolidating Dalit support, especially in constituencies with moderate to high Dalit population shares. Together, these trends underscore how Dalit demographic concentration plays a critical role in shaping electoral outcomes in Bihar. The 2020 results indicate a clear shift in Dalit voter preference away from the NDA towards the Mahagathbandhan, particularly in constituencies where Dalit voters form a decisive segment of the electorate. Also Read | Bihar 2025: No cakewalk for BJP, RJD or Nitish Kumar However, the 2025 election remains open-ended. It will likely hinge on how parties engage with Dalit communities, the credibility of alliances, and whether Dalit voters see tangible benefits and recognition from their political choices. Despite internal divisions and fragmented loyalties, nearly every political party in Bihar is actively competing for Dalit support. In a State where caste survey politics holds significant sway, a political paradox is unfolding. On the one hand, electoral bipolarity continues to deepen. On the other, new caste-based parties and leaders are emerging, only to align themselves with existing coalitions rather than form an independent third front. This trend has made it increasingly difficult for major alliances to fully accommodate the diverse aspirations of various caste groups, particularly Dalits. Yet, uniting Dalits as a cohesive political bloc is not an impossible task. The example of Uttar Pradesh in the run-up to the 2024 general election is instructive. Despite widespread assumptions that Dalit voters would remain out of reach for parties such as the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Congress, strategic candidate selection, inclusive ticket distribution, and a compelling political narrative enabled the SP to make significant gains among Dalit voters. For Bihar's political parties, a similar outcome is possible but only through inclusive leadership, authentic engagement with Dalit communities at the grassroots, and a commitment to addressing their specific social and political concerns. In a landscape shaped by identity and competition, the ability to build trust and offer genuine representation will be key to consolidating Dalit support in the elections ahead. Ashish Ranjan is an election researcher and co-founder of the Data Action Lab for Emerging Societies. Atul Kumar Pandey is an election researcher.
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New Indian Express
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