Prashant Kishor Rules Out Return to Political Strategy After Jan Suraaj's Bihar Election Defeat

Prashant Kishor - whose Jan Suraaj failed to win any of the 238 seats contested in the Bihar election - has ruled out returning to his role as a political strategist. Speaking to NDTV's Editor-in-Chief Rahul Kanwal, he confirmed he has no intentions of advising actor-politician Vijay ahead of next year's Tamil Nadu Assembly elections.

Vijay, like Kishor, will be making his electoral debut. His party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, draws strength from his popularity and is considered a potential dark horse. However, the actor is still recovering from negative publicity surrounding the September Karur stampede, for which his party faced criticism.

Kishor did reveal his future plans, which are exclusively centered on Bihar. "I will not rest till I win Bihar... let it take five years or even 10. I will not change my fundamentals. I will obviously support operational and tactical changes (i.e., lessons learned from the first election). But I will never let mafia leaders fight for my party," he stated.

His reference to 'mafia leaders' appeared to be directed at the opposition Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD). The RJD was expected to challenge the BJP-JDU alliance but instead suffered a significant defeat, securing only 25 seats - 49 fewer than their 2015 result - as they struggled to overcome the 'jungle raj' criticism.

Previously, Kishor had engineered victories for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Prime Minister Narendra Modi (during his tenure as Gujarat Chief Minister) and Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United. However, after guiding Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool to victory in Bengal in 2021, he told NDTV, "I do not want to continue what I am doing. I have done enough. It is time for me to take a break..."

He also referred to himself then as "a failed politician," reflecting on his brief stint as Nitish Kumar's deputy.

Undeterred by past experiences, Kishor launched Jan Suraaj, though his first attempt has proven unsuccessful. The party was not anticipated to make significant impacts - exit polls predicted just one seat - but the actual results were even more disappointing, with zero seats won and 99 percent of candidates losing their deposits.