Prashant Kishor accuses Bihar BJP leaders of corruption, cites ‘financial irregularities’

Jan Suraaj Party founder and former political strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday (August 8, 2025) accused senior Bihar Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders of being “more corrupt than Lalu Prasad” and levelled allegations of “financial irregularities” against the State Health Minister and the State BJP president. The BJP responded by asking Mr. Kishor to produce evidence, describing his statements as “frivolous”.

“BJP leaders in Bihar claim to be unblemished but in reality they are more corrupt than even Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, whom they like to attack over conviction in different scam cases,” Mr. Kishor alleged at a press conference in Patna. He is currently touring the State under the Bihar Badlaav Yatra [Change Bihar Journey] banner of his newly formed party.

Mr. Kishor launched the Jan Suraaj Abhiyan on October 2, 2022, with a padyatra from Mahatma Gandhi’s Bhitiharwa Ashram in West Champaran, covering over 5,000 km. On October 2, 2024, he formally floated the Jan Suraaj Party, which was allotted the “school bag” as its election symbol by the Election Commission. He has maintained that the party will provide a “third political alternative” to voters in Bihar.

In 2024, the party contested Assembly by-elections in Imamganj, Tarari, Belaganj, and Ramgarh but failed to win any seat, though its candidates contributed to the defeat of the RJD in its strongholds Belaganj and Ramgarh. Mr. Kishor has announced that the party will contest all 243 Assembly seats in the upcoming elections, scheduled for October-November this year.

Allegations against BJP leaders

Mr. Kishor alleged that State Health Minister Mangal Pandey and State BJP chief Dilip Jaiswal were involved in “financial irregularities”. “Mr. Jaiswal transferred ₹25 lakh to the account of Mr. Pandey’s father on August 6, 2019, and that money was used to purchase a flat in Dwarka Sector-6 of Delhi in the name of the then Health Minister’s wife,” he claimed, displaying documents related to the registry of the flat.

He further said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, “when the whole world was confronting the pandemic, the State’s Health Minister was busy in purchasing a flat in Delhi.”

“Even if Mr. Pandey had borrowed money from Mr. Jaiswal as a loan, why did he not mention this in his 2020 Assembly election affidavit in the category of ‘unsecured loan’?” Mr. Kishor asked.

He also alleged that Mr. Pandey granted “deemed university” status to a medical college in Kishanganj in which Mr. Jaiswal has “huge stakes”.

Mr. Pandey has previously served as Health Minister in earlier NDA governments in the State. Both Mr. Pandey and Mr. Jaiswal were unavailable for comment.

Other cases cited

Mr. Kishor also referred to a case in which a Rajsamand court in Rajasthan convicted State Urban Development and Housing Minister Jibesh Kumar Mishra in a 15-year-old fake drug case. Mr. Mishra, one of the directors of the drug company involved, was placed on probation and not sentenced to prison. The Congress had demanded his removal from the Cabinet on “moral grounds”.

“But that BJP leader continues to be a minister in Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s Cabinet,” Mr. Kishor said.

BJP response

State BJP spokesperson Neeraj Kumar dismissed the allegations, saying, “If Mr. Kishor has papers to prove his allegations against our party leaders, he should show us. These days, he has a habit of making frivolous charges against anyone.”