Patna: Political strategist Prashant Kishor (PK) is likely to turn into a politician around November 10. Currently on the ‘Jan Suraj Padyatra’, he is touring Bihar to strike a chord with the people.
“We have decided to organise a meeting around November 10 in Bettiah town where members of the Jan Suraj campaign will be invited. They will vote in the presence of mediapersons to decide whether we should form a political party or not. At present, we are only doing padyatra with a theory of Jan Suraj,” PK said after completing 200 kms in Bagha.
PK started his padyatra from west Champaran district on October 2 this year and covers a distance of 12 to 13 km every day.
The padyatra of PK has raised questions over its funding. Leaders like Shivanand Tiwari, the RJD vice president, claimed earlier that PK is spending Rs 1 crore every day on his padyatra and is living in lavish tents for the night stay. He also said that PK had given front page advertisements to all newspapers on October 2 to promote his padyatra.
“In case we form a political party, we will do crowdfunding. Bihar has a population of 13 crore and if two crore people donate Rs 100, it becomes Rs 200 crore for the party. At present, there is no banking facility in the country to collect funds directly from the common people. We want to make such a facility where people directly donate funds to the party. Other parties are raising funds through government officials, corruption and scams,” PK said.
Reacting on the funding of padyatra, PK said: “Funding is an issue that everyone is talking about. I want to tell them that I was associated with some political parties in the country in the last 11 years and I helped them in winning 10 elections so far. I never charged them for my service to them. Now, I am requesting them to donate funds for the padyatra in Bihar. The sources of the funding for the padyatra are those political parties I was associated with in the last 11 years.”
PK raised several issues like the pathetic condition of roads in villages, toilets, Har Ghar Nal Ka Jal Yojana, fertilizers, migration of youths, flash flood in West Champaran, health, education and law and order situation of Bihar.
“In the majority of issues, the government of Nitish Kumar has failed to improve these issues for common people. We have heard of good roads in Bihar, but it is only for the national and state highways. When you come to villages, the roads are in pathetic condition. I experienced the same on other issues after interacting with the local villagers of Champaran,” he said.
–IANS