Prashant Kishor says he won't contest Bihar election: 'Will continue with party's organisational work'

Prashant Kishor

Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor said he will  not contest the two-phase Bihar election on November 6 and 11.

He told PTI that he will continue to do the organisational work of the party. "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", Kishor said.

Kishor also said anything less than 150 seats is a defeat for him. "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)," he said.

The Jan Suraaj chief also said if his party comes to power, a new law will be made under which 100 most corrupt leaders will be prosecuted and given punishment. "This is a warning for all those leaders and officers who are praying that Jan Suraaj should not come to power because they know that if Jan Suraaj forms government their 'bad days' would begin," he told PTI.

Asked what he thought of his party’s prospects in the elections, the 48-year-old leader said, "I can say with certainty that we will be 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".

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.

Jan Suraaj Party recently released its second list of 65 candidates, sticking to its core promise of inclusiveness and representation to every section.  With this, Jan Suraaj has so far declared candidates for 116 seats.

In the first list, the party named 51 candidates, of whom 49 were first-time contestants.  Meanehile, curtains were virtually down on talk that Kishor may contest against Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur, where the RJD leader is aiming for a hat-trick of victories.

JSP national president Uday Singh handed the party symbol to Chanchal Singh for Raghopur, an assembly seat in Vaishali district.