Prashant Kishor admits not contesting Bihar polls was a ‘mistake’

Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor admitted that not contesting Bihar assembly polls was a “mistake” after the party secured less than 4% votes. He criticised pre-election government handouts and reaffirmed his commitment to winning future elections in the state

Patna: Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor on Wednesday claimed that his decision not to contest the Bihar assembly polls could be considered a “mistake”, and said he had never expected that his party would get less than 4 per cent votes.

His comment comes after the Jan Suraaj Party drew a blank in the recently held elections. In an interview with a news channel, Kishor said, “My decision not to contest polls can be considered a mistake. We have to do a lot to achieve a satisfactory result. I had never expected that our party would get less than 4 per cent votes in the assembly polls.”

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The former poll strategist also asserted that his effort would continue to win future elections. “I will not back down without winning Bihar. I don’t know how much time it will take,” he said during the interview.

Kishor had on Tuesday claimed that Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) would have been limited to just 25 seats had his government not given Rs 10,000 to over 60,000 beneficiaries in each constituency just before the assembly elections and promised Rs 2 lakh to 1.5 crore women across the state under a self-employment scheme.

He accused the NDA government of promising Rs 40,000 crore of people’s money, and rolling out a large chunk of it just ahead of the elections.