Prashant Kishor of the Jan Suraaj on Saturday dubbed the NDA's win in assembly bypolls in Bihar “a matter of concern” despite the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition's “failure” to end the state's chronic backwardness during its decades-long rule.
The electoral debut of the strategist-turned-actvist's party failed to make an impact in the assembly polls as all its four candidates lost the contest, with three of them forfeiting their security deposits.
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Talking to reporters in Patna shortly after the results were out, Prashant Kishor also drew succour from the fact that his fledgling Jan Suraaj won “10 per cent” of the total votes polled in four seats, but rubbished the claim that it had played a role in the Rashtriya Janata Dal's defeat in three of these.
“The RJD is a 30-year-old party. The son of its state president finished third. Can the Jan Suraaj be faulted for that? In Belaganj, all Muslim votes went to the Janata Dal United candidate. In Imamganj, the Jan Suraaj cut into the NDA votes. Else, the victory margin of (Union minister) Jitan Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha would have been bigger,” news agency PTI quoted Prashant Kishor as saying.
{{/usCountry}}“The RJD is a 30-year-old party. The son of its state president finished third. Can the Jan Suraaj be faulted for that? In Belaganj, all Muslim votes went to the Janata Dal United candidate. In Imamganj, the Jan Suraaj cut into the NDA votes. Else, the victory margin of (Union minister) Jitan Manjhi's Hindustani Awam Morcha would have been bigger,” news agency PTI quoted Prashant Kishor as saying.
{{/usCountry}}Imamganj, a reserved seat, was retained by Jitan Manjhi's daughter-in-law Deepa, who defeated the RJD candidate by a thin margin of less than 6,000 votes. Jan Suraaj candidate Jitendra Paswan finished third, polling more than 37,000 votes.
When pointed out that in three of the four seats, candidates of Jan Suraaj had polled less than one-sixth of the total votes and lost their deposits, Prashant Kishor replied, "That should not be a matter of concern (chinta ki baat). If there is a matter of concern, it is the ability of the NDA to make a clean sweep despite having ruled Bihar for so long and “failed” to end the state's backwardness".
The I-PAC founder, who had a brief stint in the JD(U), insisted that the party's supremo Nitish Kumar, the chief minister of Bihar, was a "spent force" and its candidate, former MLC Manorama Devi, had won on her own steam.
"We have always said that our fight is with NDA, not with RJD despite its claim of being the largest party in Bihar.....(but) Nitish Kumar is no factor. His party polled just about 11 per cent of total votes", said Prasant Kishor.
He also maintained that the Jan Suraaj will go solo in the assembly polls due next year when it will contest “all 243 seats”.
(With inputs from agencies)