Newbie vs. Freebies

The most dramatic recent news from the Jan Suraaj Party is that Prashant Kishor will not be contesting these elections, against Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur. He has said the reason is he doesn't want to focus only on his constituency, but spend time on all others. But on the ground, many feel he is running scared at the last minute after making some bombastic statements against his rival.

- Satish Padmanabhan

First of all, it's a very tried and tested strategy in electoral politics that for the leader a decision needs to be made whether he or she is required to use their resources to campaign for the other candidates across the states or stand for himself or herself from a particular constituency. He could have stood from Raghopur, which I am sure he would have given a very tough fight to Tejashwi, and if not, in all probability, defeated him. But on reconsideration we felt that since we are the only party which is fielding candidates in all 243 seats, his campaigning will boost the chances of our candidates across the state rather than being tied down to one constituency even if it was for three or four days. Bihar is not Delhi where Arvind Kejriwal could contest elections. We are dealing with 243 constituencies. And each of those candidates, although very credible and strong locally, come from a different cloth than the normal politicians of Bihar. Without baalu (sand) mafia, muscle men, bagsful of money. These are credible candidates with the respect and support of their constituency. But they need a catalysing force. This was in the best interest of the party rather than making one constituency a prestige fight at the cost of 242 other constituencies.

And let me tell you, we are not a disruptor. We are a credible third alternative which Bihar needs. And that is the strength of our party.