Bihar polls: Prashant Kishor opts out of assembly elections, says decision made in 'larger party interests'

PATNA: Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor on Wednesday said he was not contesting the assembly elections in Bihar in "larger party interests".

The "explanation" came a day after the party fileded Chanchal Singh, a lesser-known worker, from Raghopur seat against RJD leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav.


"The party has decided that I should not contest the assembly polls since I have a lot of responsibilities on my shoulder," Kishor told the media on Wednesday.

"Agar main chunao ladne jayunga to 2-4-5 din jo nuksan hoga usase Jan Suraaj ke kai pratyashiyon ko nuksan ho sakta hai (If I contest the elections, the loss in the number of days in course of campaigning may harm many party candidates)," Kishor explained.

"So, in larger party interests, I have been assigned the task of carrying organisational works for the party and launch campaign for candidates," he added.

Earlier, Kishor had hinted about contesting elections from two places--either his birth place that is Kargahar in Rohtas district or workplace Raghopur (Vaishali).

After the party fielded Ritesh Ranjan Pandey from Kargahar seat last week, all eyes were fixed on Raghopur since Kishor also launched his party's poll campaign from this high-profile seat on Saturday.

On Tuesday, however, the cat was finally out of bag as it was Chanchal Singh, and not Kishor, who will be challenging Tejashwi in the poll arena.