The agitation of the candidates demanding cancellation of Bihar Public Service Commission examination has now taken a political colour. Two days ago, Jan Suraj leader Prashant Kishore (PK) had called for Student Parliament on Sunday amidst the ongoing agitation demanding cancellation of the examination due to alleged paper leak. Patna Police lathi-charged and used water cannon on the students who were going to surround the CM House after the Student Parliament. Now politics regarding this has intensified.
Leader of opposition in Bihar Assembly, Tejashwi Yadav, accused PK of trying to hijack the movement by misleading the students and termed it as a very clever attempt to crush the movement. PK also hit back at Tejashwi by holding a press conference and condemning the lathi charge. Amidst the students’ agitation demanding cancellation of BPSC exams, a credit war has now broken out between election strategist turned politician PK and Tejashwi Yadav. The question is arising that why did a political fight break out between the students’ movement?
Why political fight between BPSC Protest?
Even before the formal political debut of Jan Suraj Party, RJD, Lalu Yadav’s family and Tejashwi Yadav have been the target of Prashant Kishore. The strategy of establishing the new party as the opposition before the beginning of the election year is also said to be the reason behind PK’s aggression against the opposition party rather than power. Why the credit war has broken out between two young leaders can be understood in four points.
1-Bihar elections near
Now less than a year is left for the Bihar Assembly elections. Bihar Assembly elections are to be held by the end of 2025. RJD is leading the opposition alliance of the state, while PK’s party Jan Suraj is trying to establish its political ground. In such a situation, both the parties would not want to lag behind in the credit war on this issue related to the future of the youth. The focus of both RJD and Jan Suraj parties is the mathematics of votes.
2- mathematics of youth votes
BPSC Protest is an issue directly related to the youth and according to reports, the share of people under 25 years of age in the total population of Bihar is close to 58 percent. The youth are also considered the core voters of NDA. RJD’s young face Tejashwi Yadav has been trying to connect this vote bank with himself since the 2020 elections with the promise of employment.
Also read: ‘If I had run away, Tejashwi would have gone to the hospital…’, Prashant Kishor’s clarification came out after the protest in BPSC movement.
RJD is taking government jobs among the people as an achievement during the time of Nitish Kumar’s grand alliance government. After PK’s entry in the youth movement regarding alleged irregularities in the examination, RJD may have felt that the youth might join Jan Suraj. Jan Suraj is also active on the pitch of youth politics through issues like migration and unemployment.
3- politics of the future
In the politics of Bihar, this debate also arises from time to time as to who will be the alternative to Nitish Kumar in NDA and JDU? CM Nitish would have been more than 74 years of age by the time of Bihar elections. Tejashwi and his party leaders repeatedly target him by mentioning his increasing age and calling him tired and the reason behind this is also said to be the strategy of projecting themselves as his alternative. Jan Suraj’s PK also has his eyes on future politics. In such a situation, a political fight is going on between two leaders who are trying to win the election battle of 2025 by strengthening their respective political grounds.
Also read: Congress-Left MLAs march to Raj Bhavan in support of BPSC protesters, sit on the road after being stopped by police
4- NDA’s counter plan
Experts are also citing the counter plan of the ruling alliance as a reason behind the credit war that broke out between PK and Tejashwi Yadav. Senior journalist Omprakash Ashk said that Nitish Kumar is blunting the edge of every weapon of Tejashwi. Nitish has blunted the issue of employment to an extent by giving more than 9 lakh government jobs and talking about increasing it to 12 lakh before the elections. Tejashwi has high hopes from the promise of cash for women. Nitish government has been giving cash benefits to women through different schemes. In such a situation, it is difficult to estimate what its impact will be. Now the BPSC Protest has given the opposition a big and new issue rising above caste equations.