Prashant Kishor shifts political base to new 15-bigha ashram near Patna

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor has shifted his political base from “Sheikhpura House” in Patna to the newly developing “Bihar Nav Nirmaan Ashram” near IIT-Patna, around 40 kilometres from the city on its outskirts.

Prashant Kishor confirmed to India Today that he moved out of his earlier Patna residence on Tuesday night and has now started staying at the ashram itself. He said the ashram would become the centre of his political and organisational activities till the next Bihar Assembly elections.

According to Jan Suraaj Party sources, the Bihar Nav Nirmaan Ashram is being developed on nearly 15 bighas of land. Construction work is still underway and the entire project is expected to be completed within the next three to four months. Despite the ongoing construction, Prashant Kishor has already shifted to the premises and started operating from there.

Jan Suraaj leaders said the ashram would host party meetings, strategy discussions, training sessions and interactions with workers and supporters from across Bihar. The party plans to use the project as a permanent grassroots political and organisational base for the Jan Suraaj movement ahead of future Assembly elections.

Until now, Prashant Kishor had been staying at “Sheikhpura House” in Patna, a bungalow near the airport owned by the family of former BJP MP and current Jan Suraaj national president Uday Singh. Party leaders said the residence had emerged as one of the key centres of Jan Suraaj’s political activities during the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. The party held major meetings, candidate discussions, media interactions and election planning sessions there during the campaign.

The shift to the new ashram comes after Jan Suraaj suffered a major setback in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. The party contested a large number of seats but failed to win any seat in its first major electoral contest.

Despite the disappointing result, Prashant Kishor has continued his campaign and repeatedly maintained that Jan Suraaj is not merely an election project, but a long-term movement aimed at “changing Bihar”. He has often argued that Bihar politics remains trapped in caste equations and dynasty politics while issues such as education, jobs, migration and development continue to be ignored.

This is also not the first time Prashant Kishor has experimented with the “ashram model” in Bihar politics. In December 2024, he launched an ashram-style political outreach centre near Patna’s Marine Drive area, where Jan Suraaj workers and supporters regularly held meetings and interactions during the party’s expansion phase.

Political observers believe that by shifting to the Bihar Nav Nirmaan Ashram despite the electoral setback, Prashant Kishor is attempting to send a message that his political movement and campaign for “changing Bihar” will continue in the run-up to the next Bihar Assembly elections in 2030.

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