Prashant Kishor Says He Will Not Contest Bihar Assembly Polls, Calls It Jan Suraaj Party Decision

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor announced on Wednesday that he will not contest the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, saying the decision was taken by the party in its larger interest. According to PTI, Kishor said the move would allow him to focus on organisational work.

The party has named another candidate to contest from Raghopur against Tejashwi Yadav. Kishor told PTI in an exclusive interview that if he had stood for election it would have distracted him from necessary organisational tasks.

Speaking to Outlook, Jan Suraaj's Party Chief National Spokesperson and senior leader Pawan K Varma, said Kishor quit the race "in the larger interests of the party." Kishor "decided not to tie himself down to any one particular constituency, because that may take away four or five days from his overall election campaign for the party," said Varma.

"The reason for his (Kishor) not fighting the election is clear, he has spelt it out himself. He will be campaigning across the state. All our candidates will benefit from his presence as he travels around the state." said Varma.

The former Indian ambassador to Bhutan also added, that Kishor's priority is "J&K wins a majority on its own," saying he was confidence that "we will."  

The Bihar polls will be held in two phases, on November 6 and November 11, with counting scheduled for November 14. According to PTI, Kishor set out clear performance expectations for his party in the contest.

“I can say with certainty that we will either win handsomely or receive a drubbing. I have been stating on record that I expect a tally of either fewer than 10 seats or more than 150 seats. There is no possibility of anything in between,” the 48-year-old leader told PTI.

Kishor added that a tally below 150 seats would amount to a defeat for him personally. “A tally less than 150, even if it is 120 or 130, shall be a defeat for me,” he said.

He also argued that a Jan Suraaj victory in Bihar would have national implications. “If Jan Suraaj Party wins the Bihar polls, it will have a nationwide impact. The compass of national politics will point in a different direction".

Kishor said that a strong mandate would give the party the authority to pursue an agenda to transform Bihar. “If we do well, we will have the mandate to transform Bihar and make it count among the 10 most advanced states of the country. If we do not do well enough, it would mean the people have not shown enough confidence in us, and we must continue to carry on with our politics of the street and society (samaj aur sadak ki rajneeti),” he told PTI.

On the possibility of a hung assembly, Kishor rejected a fractured mandate as unlikely and declined to answer in terms of whether his party would support the NDA or the INDIA bloc, saying instead that a clear outcome was expected.

(With inputs from PTI)