Prashant Kishor's Wish To Do A Smriti Irani In Bihar & The Politics Of Crumbling Strongholds

Last Updated:October 14, 2025, 16:42 IST

When the top & most high-profile faces lose, it’s a blow that is hard to recover from and often means the end of a narrative. This is what Kishor seeks to achieve against Tejashwi

Prashant Kishor wants to deliver the ultimate blow to the Yadav clan and Tejashwi Yadav. But will it be easy? (PTI)

Nothing shakes a Neta more than his or her bastion crumbling. And this is the ultimate blow that Prashant Kishor wants to deliver to Bihar contender Tejaswi Yadav.

While suspense remains over whether Kishor will take the poll plunge from Raghopur, which is Tejashwi’s constituency, the political-strategist-turned-politician has already announced that “Raghopur will be another Amethi".

In 2019, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi stormed back to power once again, it was Smriti Irani who earned the tag of being the giant slayer as she defeated Rahul Gandhi from his family bastion of Amethi—a loss he hasn’t yet recovered from.

At the press conference after the 2019 Lok Sabha defeat, Gandhi was accompanied by his sister Priyanka Vadra. Both looked ashen-faced and for the BJP, it has been an issue since then to question the Gandhis’ supremacy in the party since then.

When Rahul Gandhi opted for Rae Bareli and not Amethi in 2024, the Congress flaunted the defeat of Smriti Irani to KL Sharma as a humiliation—positioning it as a loss to a humble party worker. However, the BJP continues to ask: Why did Rahul Gandhi run away from Amethi?

Moving on from the Gandhis, the list of crumbling bastions is pretty long.

For instance, Sheila Dikshit. In the 2013 Delhi polls, Sheila Dikshit and the Congress were stunned when the three-time chief minister was defeated by Arvind Kejriwal, who succeeded her. While many in the Congress had sensed that the Grand Old Party was on its way out, they felt that the popular Dikshit, who had transformed the national capital, would remain in the heart of Delhiites. However, the shock on her face as results poured in showed that Delhi had turned its back to Dikshit and the Congress. The three-time chief minister, who reigned for 15 years, never came back and the heart-broken leader died soon after.

Then, as fate would have it, Kejriwal himself lost from the same constituency he had defeated Dikshit from. The Aam Aadmi Party was wiped out, their chief minister lost and many observers feel Kejriwal has now faded into oblivion.

When the top and most high-profile faces lose, it’s a blow that is hard to recover from. In many cases, it means the end of a narrative. Rahul Gandhi, Kejriwal and Sheila Dikshit are such examples.

This is why Prashant Kishor wants to deliver the ultimate blow to the Yadav clan and Tejashwi Yadav. But will it be easy?

First, the picture of Lalu Yadav on a wheelchair going to rouse avenue court in the IRCTC case is something the RJD would want to show as a witch hunt and whip up support and sympathy for the veteran leader. While the BJP will attack Lalu and Tejashwi for being corrupt and heralding the return of Jungle Raj if voted back to power, the Yadav votes could be consolidated to ensure that PK does not have his way.

The other strategy could be to ensure that Tejashwi, who is the star campaigner of the Mahagathbandhan and RJD, is limited to campaigning in Raghopur.

But in the politics of Bihar, where blood is thicker than water, caste is the X factor and the cookie crumbling could be the decisive turn in the state’s politics.

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