Poll consultant–turned–politician Prashant Kishor converted his Jan Suraaj (public good governance) campaign into a political party on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary on Wednesday at a massive gathering of his supporters in Bihar capital.

As expected, the new party was named the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP). Former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer Manoj Bharti, a native of Madhubani district, who has studied at IIT Kanpur and IIT Delhi, and hails from the Dalit community, has been appointed its executive president.

The public meeting also served as a show of strength and capable people who would handle the reigns of the party. Many well known figures in politics like former Union minister Devendra Prasad Yadav, former MP Monazir Hasan, and diplomat–turned–politician Pavan Varma were present on the occasion.

The move to form the political party came as a logical progression to the culmination of Kishor’s 5,000 km march across 5,500 villages in Bihar, which he had started on October 2, 2022, from the Bhitiharwa Ashram of Mahatma Gandhi in West Champaran.

The party claims to have a support of 1 crore people of the state and promises to provide a “better and development-oriented alternative” to the existing political parties active in Bihar, including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Janata Dal United (JDU). It will contest all 243 in the 2025 Bihar Assembly election.

Ahead of announcing the launch of the party, Kishor exhorted the supporters to chant the ‘Jai Bihar’ slogan so hard that it “reaches Delhi, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and wherever else the children of Bihar are being thrashed and abused.”

“You all need to chant ‘Jai Bihar’ so loud that nobody dares to call you and your children a ‘Bihari’, which feels like an abuse,” he added, extending an emotional appeal.

Speaking after announcing the formation of the party, Kishor pointed out that the people of Bihar voted for the BJP, RJD, and JDU in the election over promises like the Ram Temple at Ayodhya, free food grains, voice of the downtrodden, electricity, and the development of Gujarat and got them in return.

“We did not vote for education and employment for our children. So our youths remained illiterate and became migrant labourers,” Kishor said and recommended five schemes of the party that would change Bihar.

“We will improve the life of our children with the help of education, the life of our adults by providing them capital to start work, and the life of our elderly by providing them ₹2,000 per month as pension to live with dignity,” he added.

Kishor said that establishing a robust education system would cost around ₹ 5 lakh crore, the banks would be forced to provide more loans at 4 per cent interest for those who want to start some work or business, and the pension for the elderly would cost the state ₹6000 crore.