Prashant Kishor will support Independents in LS polls

‘Kishor hasn’t been able to make his yatra speedy; he has been rather slow’.

NEW DELHI: A year ahead of the general elections, Prashant Kishor, according to sources, has tentatively decided that he may contest the Lok Sabha elections without launching a party in Bihar, and candidates will be fielded only after marking out Lok Sabha segments and only in places where his message has reached far and wide and has also gained considerable support from people.
In a meeting held recently, Kishor was asked about his plans for the Lok Sabha elections where he had replied that if the mood of the people is to further his movement and if they are willing to support, then “we should field candidates in places where there will be chances of winning,” Kishor had said. However, sources claim that the party will only be launched after Kishor travels to all the districts. A member of Kishor’s team told The Sunday Guardian, “Kishor hasn’t been able to make his yatra speedy. He has been rather slow. It was first decided that the yatra should take 15 months after which the party would have been floated. But since seven months, we have only been able to cover seven districts. There are 31 more districts. And we don’t think we can cover them all before the Lok Sabha polls. So it is understood that we won’t be able to launch a party by then. And Kishor has decided that he will field and support independent candidates.”
Moreover, sources privy to the developments claim that there are several legislators in the state who are impressed with the movement and want to join him in coming times. “They cannot show support for his movement openly. But there are also strong guidelines from Kishor that those legislators who in the time of ticket distribution fail to get tickets and then cross over to his ‘future party’ will not be entertained. He has made it a point that those who do not participate with him during his current time or do not support him during the struggling phase will seldom get importance.”
The Kishor led abhiyan has also decided not to contest elections in any alliance. A member close to Kishor said, “We will contest elections on our own, with independents and we will do so against all the parties. We will field our candidate against all the parties in the state. We may also not be the part of a grand national opposition alliance.”
Moreover, Kishor’s electoral ambitions were further pushed by his Jan Suraj Abhiyan-backed independent candidate Afaque Ahmad when he won Saran teachers’ MLC seat, defeating his nearest rival Anand Pushkar of CPI by 674 votes. Ahmad got 3,055 votes while Pushkar got 2,381. The Jan Suraj Abhiyan member said the seat that was won by Kishor-backed candidate was the stronghold of BJP where Ahmed was successfully able to pull off a surprising victory.
In the electoral contest, BJP’s Dharmendra Kumar got only 495 votes, less than many independent candidates.
The Jan Suraj Abhiyan had backed another independent candidate Abhiram Sharma who also unexpectedly secured a third position in the Gaya teachers’ seat.