Bihar Polls, Oct. 31 -- For about three years now, Prashant Kishor has been travelling across Bihar, pitching his newly-formed Jan Suraaj party as an alternative to the state's entrenched caste-driven politics. As the state heads into elections next week, Kishor says his biggest achievement is that the party has already changed the political discourse, forcing both the RJD and the BJP to discuss jobs, migration, and governance.

In this exclusive conversation in the middle of his poll campaign, Kishor, himself from Bihar, speaks about the 'hopelessness' among voters, his message to end 'political bonded labour,' his critique of cash doles and freebies, and why he believes November 14 - the result day - could mark the beginning of a new po...