Prashant Kishor

Prashant Kishor, born in 1977 in Konar village, Rohtas district, Bihar, is a renowned Indian political strategist. He started his career working with the United Nations for eight years, where he was trained in public health. Later, his father moved the family to Buxar in Bihar.

Kishor first gained widespread attention in 2012 when he successfully led a political campaign for then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during the Assembly Elections. This success marked the beginning of his journey as a sought-after election strategist.

In 2014, Kishor founded the election campaign group Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), which played a key role in helping the Bharatiya Janata Party secure an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha elections. His innovative strategies included campaigns like Chai pe Charcha, 3D rallies, Run for Unity, and various social media initiatives.

After parting ways with Modi in 2014, Kishor worked with Nitish Kumar in the 2015 Bihar Assembly Elections, helping him win a third term as Chief Minister. Around this time, he transformed CAG into the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), which later worked on several successful campaigns, including those for Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab and Jagan Mohan Reddy of YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh.

In 2017, Kishor was hired by the Congress party for the Punjab Assembly elections, where his strategies proved successful. However, his efforts in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections with the Indian National Congress did not yield the same results.

In 2018, Kishor joined Janata Dal (United) but was expelled in 2020 due to his criticism of Nitish Kumar's support for the Citizenship Amendment Act. Despite this, his reputation as a strategist remained strong. He helped the Aam Aadmi Party win a majority in the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections.

Kishor's expertise was also sought by the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) for the 2021 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, where his strategies helped TMC secure a significant victory. The same year, he worked with DMK in Tamil Nadu, leading to a resounding win for the party and the election of M.K. Stalin as Chief Minister.

In March 2021, Kishor was appointed as the principal advisor to Amarinder Singh with the status of a Cabinet Minister, ahead of the 2022 Punjab Assembly Elections. However, following the successes in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, Kishor announced his retirement from election strategy work, expressing a desire to explore new paths in life.

He has decided to enter the political race in the upcoming bypolls in four Assembly seats in Bihar. His group, Jan Suraaj, is expected to contest all seats of Bihar in the next assembly election.

He has announced that he would lift the liquor ban in Bihar “within an hour” if his party is elected to power in the state. Also, he will include the 'right to recall' provision in its constitution.

Kishor's personal life includes his wife, Dr. Jahnavi Das, and their son.