Bihar polls: Will Prashant Kishor's decision to skip contest against Tejashwi Yadav help Jan Suraaj?

The Jan Suraaj party in Bihar has announced that its chief, Prashant Kishor, will not contest the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, putting an end to the ongoing speculation about his potential face-off with Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur. The buzz around a possible contest had stemmed from Kishor’s earlier remark to the media, where he had said that he could contest against Yadav from Raghopur if his party decided so.

"Jan Suraaj decided I should concentrate on organisational work and not contest," Kishor said to a media outlet. While also setting a massive target for Jan Suraaj, he announced that "anything less than 150 seats" for the party would be a "defeat".

Talking to presspersons, Kishor reiterated his prediction about defeat for the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar, and added that the Janata Dal (United), led by Nitish Kumar, will struggle to win even 25 seats. "The NDA is definitely on its way out and Nitish Kumar will not return as chief minister," he said.

 

Political observers believe that the party’s decision not to field its ace strategist this time stems from multiple considerations. First, there was no particular constituency that could be positioned as a safe seat for him while maintaining the right optics. Second, the party’s strength largely relies on Kishor’s mobility across the state and his ability to give undivided attention to the entire cadre — something that would have been compromised had he been tied down to his own constituency. 

 

A Jan Suraaj leader said, "There was also a high possibility that he would have lost the assembly elections against Tejaswi Yadav, had he contested against him. And that would have made headlines against Kishor negatively, damaging the party image in some way."

 

A section of experts believe that Kishor’s debut from Raghopur may have unsettled the RJD camp, as his candidature from their party’s bastion might have created a sense of unease for Tejashwi Yadav. It could have also compelled Yadav to concentrate on safeguarding his own seat, thereby reducing his attention area from the wider state-level campaign and cadre management to mostly his constituency. 

 

In his latest statement, where he declared his decision not to contest elections, Kishor added one doesn't need to be a psephologist to fathom what is in store for the JD(U)." In the last assembly polls, Chirag Paswan staged a revolt just a few days ahead of the announcement of elections and fielded candidates, many of whom were inconsequential, against nominees of Kumar's party, causing its tally to crash to 43," recalled Kishor.

 

"The situation is no better in the INDIA bloc either. There is a never-ending tiff between RJD and the Congress. And nobody knows if former state minister Mukesh Sahani's Vikassheel Insaan Party is still by their side," Kishor said.

India