“General Fled Before Battle,” Anurag Thakur Taunts PK
BJP leaders take jibes as Jan Suraaj chief opts out of electoral contest; Thakur defends candidate list amid Muslim representation row.
- Anurag Thakur calls Kishor a “general who fled before battle.”
- Kishor says Jan Suraaj asked him to focus on organisational work.
- Predicts NDA’s defeat and JDU’s tally below 25 seats.
- BJP defends no-Muslim candidate list, citing “winnability.”
GG News Bureau
New Delhi, 16th Oct: Jan Suraaj Party chief Prashant Kishor’s decision not to contest the upcoming Bihar Assembly election has sparked a sharp reaction from senior BJP leader Anurag Thakur. Campaigning in Patna on Wednesday, Thakur likened Kishor to a “general” who abandoned his troops before the fight.
“The general has fled. What will happen to the army?” he quipped, taking a swipe at the poll strategist-turned-politician.
A former Union Minister, Thakur was also asked about the absence of Muslim candidates among the BJP’s 101 nominees for the election. He responded that the party distributes tickets purely based on “winnability.”
“We focus on Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas. We do not provide facilities to people based on religion and caste. The one who can win gets the ticket,” Thakur said.
Kishor, meanwhile, ended weeks of speculation about his electoral plans by announcing that he would not contest the polls.
“Jan Suraaj decided I should concentrate on organisational work and not contest,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. Predicting a rout for the ruling NDA, Kishor asserted that the Nitish Kumar-led JDU would struggle to secure even 25 seats.
“The NDA is definitely on its way out and Nitish Kumar will not return as Chief Minister,” he declared.
Setting an ambitious benchmark, Kishor said that “anything less than 150 seats” for his party would be considered a “defeat.”
The BJP, however, dismissed his decision as a tactical retreat. “Prashant Kishor is a very smart businessman and has experience in running election campaigns. Perhaps he realised that the ground situation isn’t in his favour and that a loss would harm his future prospects,” BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla remarked.
Polling for Bihar’s 243 Assembly seats will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, with results to be announced on November 14.
