Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Wednesday announced that he will not contest the upcoming Bihar assembly elections, asserting that the decision was taken in the "larger interest of the party."

The former political strategist also predicted a decisive defeat for the ruling NDA, while pledging to take stringent action against corruption if his party forms the government.

“The party has decided that I should not contest the assembly polls. And therefore, the party has announced another candidate from Raghopur, against Tejashwi Yadav. It was a decision we took in the larger interest of the party. If I were to contest, it would have distracted me from the necessary organisational work,” Kishor told PTI in an exclusive interview.

Kishor said the Jan Suraaj Party is expecting a “decisive mandate” in the elections.

“I can say with certainty that we will either win handsomely or receive a drubbing. I have been stating on record that I expect a tally of either fewer than 10 seats or more than 150 seats. There is no possibility of anything in between,” he said.

“A tally less than 150, even if it is 120 or 130, shall be a defeat for me,” Kishor added.

“If we do well, we will have the mandate to transform Bihar and make it count among the 10 most advanced states of the country. If we do not do well enough, it would mean the people have not shown enough confidence in us, and we must continue to carry on with our politics of the street and society (samaj aur sadak ki rajneeti).”

The Jan Suraaj chief claimed that his party, if voted to power, would launch a crackdown on corruption within its first month in office.

“Within a month of forming the government, a law will be made to identify 100 most corrupt politicians and bureaucrats of the state, who, I am sure, must be conducting pujas to ensure that we do not come to power,” Kishor said.

“These corrupt politicians and bureaucrats will be prosecuted and their ill-gotten wealth will be confiscated and deposited in the state exchequer, where it could be used for Bihar’s growth, which has remained stunted because of their misdeeds,” he added.

Kishor accused both the ruling NDA and the RJD of perpetuating corruption in the state.

“We have promised to rid Bihar of land mafia, sand mining mafia, and all other types of mafia. To this end, we have made six promises, including the scrapping of the bogus (farzi) prohibition policy,” he said.

He alleged that the NDA, despite its image of probity, was equally mired in graft. “Samrat Choudhary enjoys the Deputy Chief Minister’s post despite being an accused in a case relating to the killing of seven persons. He is not out on bail nor has he been acquitted. He escaped trial by furnishing a fake certificate that showed him to be a minor at the time of the massacre,” Kishor claimed.

“These people wrap a blanket around themselves to hide the ghee that they are consuming secretly (kambal odh ke ghee pinaa).”

Taking aim at both national parties, he said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi have no stakes whatsoever in the Bihar polls. A reason why they are content with occasionally visiting the state and indulging in slander against each other. They are not suffering like we are.”

“Lalu and Nitish may have been directly responsible for the plight of Bihar, which continues to be at the rock bottom in terms of development. But the Congress and the BJP must also share the blame, as these national parties kept backing inefficient regional leaders, just to ensure that they could get a few Lok Sabha seats from the state,” he added.

On the current political scenario, Kishor predicted a major setback for the ruling alliance.

“The NDA is definitely on its way out and Nitish Kumar will not return as chief minister,” he said.

“You do not need to be a psephologist to fathom what is in store for the JD(U). In the last assembly polls, Chirag Paswan staged a revolt just a few days ahead of the announcement of elections and fielded candidates, many of whom were inconsequential, against nominees of Kumar's party, causing its tally to crash to 43.”

He claimed that “complete chaos” prevailed within both alliances.

“It is still unclear which seats the BJP will contest and where the JD(U) wants to field its candidates. The situation is no better in the INDIA bloc either. There is a never-ending tiff between RJD and the Congress. And nobody knows if former state minister Mukesh Sahani’s Vikassheel Insaan Party is still by their side.”

Despite ruling himself out of the electoral fray, Kishor maintained that he remains committed to strengthening Jan Suraaj. “If Jan Suraaj Party wins the Bihar polls, it will have a nationwide impact. The compass of national politics will point in a different direction,” he asserted.

The Bihar polls will be held in two phases on November 6 and 11, with counting scheduled for November 14.