Jan Suraaj Chief Prashant Kishor on Tuesday addressed a press conference, days after his party registered a massive loss in the Bihar Assembly elections. Speaking to the reporters, Kishor addressed his previous claim that he would quit politics if Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) secured more than 25 seats in the polls.
After JD (U) bagged 85 seats in the Bihar polls, emerging as the second largest party in the state after the BJP, Prashant Kishor's remark regarding his retirement from politics resurfaced.
Speaking at his first post-election press conference in Patna, Kishor clarified that his earlier remark was being misinterpreted. “I do not hold any position, so from which post should I resign?” he said. “I never said I would leave Bihar. I said I would not do politics, and that stands. What I do is not politics; amplifying people’s voices is not politics.”
Reasserting his previous statement about the JD(U)’s performance, Kishor added to his claim, saying that he would quit politics if Nitish Kumar transfers the Rs 2 lakh he promised to the women in Bihar.
“People are talking a lot about my remark on JD(U) winning 25 seats. I still stand by it. If Nitish Kumar transfers the Rs 2 lakh he promised to 1.5 crore women and proves he didn’t win by buying votes, I will retire from politics without any ifs and buts,” he said.
Kishor also repeated his allegation that the NDA’s sweeping victory was aided by an unprecedented scale of pre-poll outreach. “For the first time in independent India, especially in Bihar, a government promised to spend ₹40,000 crore for people, and that is why the NDA secured such a big majority,” he said.
Dismissing claims that voters accepted Rs 10,000 in exchange for their vote, he argued: “People here will not sell their future or their children's future. There is no end to this debate.”
He further alleged that in every Assembly constituency, 60,000–62,000 people were given Rs 10,000 and promised a Rs 2 lakh loan, with government officials and Jeevika didis deployed to tell voters they would receive the amount if the NDA returned to power.