Amid all the political buzz created around Prashant Kishor contesting the Bihar assembly elections, the Jan Suraaj Party founder on Wednesday announced that he will not be contesting the assembly polls. While speaking to the media, he claimed that it was a collective decision taken by the party for its greater good.
While expressing his views on contesting the election during a one-on-one interview, the former political strategist said that a “tally of less than 150 seats” for Jan Suraaj will be considered a defeat, as cited by news agency PTI.
Kishor added that, “If the Jan Suraaj Party wins the Bihar polls, it will have a nationwide impact. The compass of national politics will point in a different direction,” as cited by news agency PTI.
The much-anticipated Bihar polls will be held in two phases, on November 6 and November 11, and the counting will take place on November 14.
Jan Suraaj Party founder Kishor further added that, “The party has decided that I should not contest the assembly polls. And therefore, the party has announced another candidate from Raghopur, against Tejashwi Yadav. It was a decision we took in the larger interest of the party. If I were to contest, it would have distracted me from the necessary organisational work,” as cited by PTI.
When asked about his thoughts on the Jan Suraaj party`s prospects in the elections, Prashant Kishor said, “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,” as per PTI.
He made the averment when asked whether his party would like to support the NDA or the INDIA bloc if the elections threw a hung assembly, terming a fractured mandate as an impossibility.
Former poll strategist Prashant Kishor asserted that “a tally less than 150, even if it is 120 or 130, shall be a defeat for me. 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), as per PTI.
(With inputs from PTI)