New Delhi: Jan Suraaj leader Prashant Kishor’s corruption allegations against the leaders of the Janata Dal (United) and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Bihar have triggered dissension within the ruling alliance, with many leaders bringing up the charges against their own to point fingers, ahead of the Bihar assembly elections.
Kishor, who launched his Jan Suraaj party on 2 October 2024, has been busy cornering the Nitish Kumar-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in Bihar over corruption, among other issues, while positioning himself as an alternative leader capable of ushering in ‘clean politics’ in the state.
In the past few months, Prashant Kishor has levelled serious allegations against three senior Bihar BJP leaders—Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Dilip Jaiswal, and Mangal Pandey. He even brought allegations against Bihar Rural Work Minister Ashok Choudhary, considered close to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, to corner the JD(U).
Both the BJP and the JD(U) had, for a while, been terming the allegations as baseless. On Monday, the Bihar BJP even asked Prashant Kishor how he managed to raise hundreds of crores via shell companies, in a challenge to counter his accusations.
However, Kishor appears to have achieved his goal now, as the NDA leaders have started questioning their own party leaders and ministers to get to the bottom of the corruption charges against them, thereby legitimising the accusations of the Jan Suraaj leader.
By spurring turmoil within parties, his allegations have become not only a headache for the NDA alliance but also a weapon for the opposition parties, giving them a fresh cause to attack the BJP-JD(U) combination.
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PK’s allegations ‘marring image of BJP’
To begin with, the former Union minister and senior BJP leader Raj Kumar Singh said that the issues raised by Kishor put several question marks around the credibility of the NDA government in Bihar, asking the accused—Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary from the BJP and other state ministers—to come forward to clear their stands.
R.K. Singh, however, added that he was not making anti-party statements but raising issues related to the BJP’s image and what was tarnishing it. The ex-minister said the leaders against whom Kishor made allegations must respond, in the backdrop of the party’s falling graph in the state amid the silence of the accused leaders.
“I am, in fact, talking about those tarnishing the image of the party…He [Samrat Choudhary] should respond to the allegations if he has answers. If he can not answer, he should tender his resignation,” said R.K. Singh.
Prashant Kishor has accused Choudhary of never passing his matriculation exam. R.K. Singh said that Choudhary should put the controversy to rest by showing his matriculation and graduation degrees.
The BJP leader said he agreed with JD(U) leader Neeraj Kumar, who also wanted ministers and leaders from his party to clear their names.
Prashant Kishor has levelled charges against another heavyweight, Bihar BJP President Dilip Jaiswal, accusing him of murder and illegally taking over the management of a college.
“He should respond if he has an answer, and if the claim is incorrect, he should file a defamation case,” said R.K. Singh, who served as Union power minister till June 2024 in PM Narendra Modi’s cabinet, but lost the Lok Sabha election from Ara last year after back-to-back wins in 2014 and 2019.
In July, Prashant Kishor, accusing Dilip Jaiswal of unlawfully acquiring a medical college, said in a press conference, “Dilip Jaiswal has not only taken control of a Sikh minority college—Mata Gujri Memorial Medical College—but has also maintained his control over it for 25-30 years. He systematically expelled the entire family of the institute founder, and ultimately, assumed the role of director, having begun his career as a clerk.”
R.K. Singh said “such leaders” were denting the image of the party. “Party ka graph neeche gir raha hai…hence, it is now important that they respond.”
The senior BJP leader also claimed that a conspiracy against him during the 2024 LS elections made him lose the Ara seat. He claimed to have shared the names of those behind the plot with BJP National President J.P. Nadda, the BJP state chief, and the JD(U) leadership. The NDA alliance should not field those he had named in the Bihar assembly elections, failing which, R.K. Singh warned, he would have to act accordingly.
Bihar BJP spokesperson Manoj Sharma, in his response, said that the party forum is the best platform to raise any issue and that R.K. Singh should first raise any such matter there. “He should take up the matter within the party forum, and only if not heard, he should raise it publicly,” Sharma said.
Sources in the BJP said that R.K. Singh was upset with the party for keeping him on the sidelines for some time now and was now raising his voice on issues in his bid for accommodation within the party.
“Wo apne liye koi pramukh bhoomika dekh rahein hai aur ye issue apne aap ko highlight karne ke liye utha rahein hai. Party mai inn vishayon par koi baat nahi hui hai (He wants a major role and is highlighting himself by raising these issues, but there have not been any talks inside the party),” a Bihar BJP functionary told ThePrint.
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Turmoil spreads within JD(U), ‘response must’
JD(U) Member of Legislative Council Neeraj Kumar, the chief spokesperson of the party, raised questions over the charges against state minister Ashok Choudhary, that he bought benami land properties worth Rs 200 crore.
“Anyone can accuse anyone of anything…but if anyone gets slapped with such serious allegations, they must respond. We believe in transparent politics,” Kumar told the media.
The JD(U) leader added that when Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav was facing several allegations, there were suggestions that he should respond.
“The entire country knows what happened when he failed to respond. Ashok Choudhary should also respond. No allegations have been made against JD(U) ministers in the past since Nitish Kumar became CM. I do not know the truth behind Prashant Kishor’s charges. Whatever has so far come in the media, our party has never come across such allegations,” Neeraj Kumar told the media.
Neeraj Kumar stressed the party would want to hear what Ashok Choudhary had to say and that the workers who built the JD(U) with great effort and sacrifice would not allow anyone to loot it. Highlighting that the JD(U) was facing such serious charges for the first time and going through a trial by fire, he demanded that Choudhary put the matter to rest urgently.
“This is not a normal matter,” Neeraj Kumar said, asking Choudhary to issue a statement clarifying his position before the media.
Calling the Bihar CM a standard in Indian politics, Neeraj Kumar said that Nitish Kumar would not allow anyone to tarnish his and JD(U)’s image.
JD(U) has not commented on the issue, but a source within the party told ThePrint that it had become a matter of internal conflict, and the party would discuss it at a suitable time.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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