Can paper leak allegations prove to be Prashant Kishor’s launchpad into Bihari politics?

“The matter started from Gandhi Maidan and it will be settled there.”

That is what political strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor declared at a press conference in Patna late on Monday, after a day that had started with the Patna Police detaining him from the city’s historic Gandhi Maidan, where he had been sitting on an indefinite hunger strike.

He had begun his protest on January 2 in solidarity with job aspirants who have alleged malpractices in the Bihar Public Service Commission examination held in December.

Shortly after he was arrested, a Patna court set Kishor’s bail at Rs 25,000. Kishor refused to pay, choosing instead to go to jail for two weeks. Hours later, he was granted unconditional bail and announced at the press conference that he would continue his fast.

With the elections to the Bihar Assembly scheduled for later this year, political observers in the state told Scroll that Kishor’s actions were aimed at generating momentum for the Jan Suraaj Party that he launched last year.

“One does not become a leader in Bihar without facing the police baton,” said Pushpendra, a former professor at the Patna centre of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

By tapping into the anger of job aspirants, Kishor is trying to reach...

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