‘Master’ political strategist and current vice-president of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal United (JDU), Prashant Kishor has made his discomfort known to the party leadership through a tweet criticizing the JD(U)’s decision to support the Citizenship Amendment Bill. The party had initial reservations towards the bill when it was introduced earlier, however, after Home Minister Amit Shah addressed these concerns, the party headed by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar decided to go in an all-out support of the legislation.
Prashant Kishor said, “Disappointed to see JD(U) supporting CAB that discriminates right of citizenship on the basis of religion.” The tweet further said, “It is incongruous with the party’s constitution that carries the word secular thrice on the very first page and the leadership that is supposedly guided by Gandhian ideals.”
Disappointed to see JDU supporting #CAB that discriminates right of citizenship on the basis of religion.
It's incongruous with the party's constitution that carries the word secular thrice on the very first page and the leadership that is supposedly guided by Gandhian ideals.
— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) December 9, 2019
Although Prashant Kishor is the national vice-president of the JD(U), he has not abandoned his professional career, i.e., political strategizing for parties. Currently, he is associated with Mamata Banerjee’s TMC and is working towards ensuring that the BJP is not successful in sweeping the state in the 2021 Assembly elections. He is also in talks with the DMK in Tamil Nadu and might very well jump ship to help the southern party as well.
This open dissent by Kishor is definitely not going to go down well with Nitish Kumar. It must be remembered that unlike the cadre-based BJP or even the CPI(M), the JD(U) is a supremo-based party. Hence, the decision of the leader is usually the decision of the party. There is no scope of internal party democracy as power is completely concentrated in the hands of the supremo. Any individual who opposes this view is generally made to face severe consequences. Now that the vice-president of the party himself has dissented, either he will be made to publicly apologize or will be simply kicked out. Kishor’s political career as of now, therefore, hangs in the balance.
Earlier, the JD(U) had sacked its former president Sharad Yadav for ‘anti-party’ activities. After Nitish Kumar had left the alliance with RJD and joined hands with the BJP once again, Sharad Yadav had criticized Kumar for betraying the alliance with Lalu. “(The move) was important due to Yadav’s recent actions. It was a necessary step because being a leader if a person indulges in anti-party activities, it has to be condemned unanimously,” Bihar JD(U) president Vashishtha Narayan told ANI.
This gives us an idea about the manner in which dissent is not welcome in the party. Nitish Kumar, apart from being a political opportunist, is an authoritarian leader. Arrogant to the core, Nitish Kumar has no heart for criticism. The JD(U) as a party strictly conforms to his view and opinion. Prashant Kishor’s adventurism on a sensitive issue like the CAB is bound to raise tempers within the JD(U). However, being the political strategist he is, it is also possible that he staged this act altogether in order to easily jump ship to another party and be given an important position there. Support given to the Citizenship Amendment Bill against the advice of Prashant Kishore, also reflects that the JDU is keen on nurturing the alliance with BJP.