Prashant Kishor: Why India's political start-ups rarely succeed

Prashant Kishor’s new party, Jan Suraaj, created a media splash but flopped, winning no seats in Bihar.

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But when the 48-year-old finally stepped into the arena himself, the spell snapped.

Kishor launched Jan Suraaj (People's Good Governance) with the swagger of a data-driven political start-up and the promise of breaking the cycle of stagnation in Bihar, India's poorest and third most populous state.

He spent two years walking across the state, built a slick organisation and fielded candidates in almost all 243 seats. The media buzz was huge, but Jan Suraaj failed to win a single seat, scraping only a sliver of the vote, as Modi's BJP-led alliance swept to power.

For all the attention Kishor commanded - often more than established leaders - the party could not convert visibility into votes. In India's febrile and deeply divided political marketplace, his debut, many believe, stands as a cautionary tale: breaking into the system is far harder than diagnosing its flaws from the outside.