PATNA: Political strategist and Jan Suraaj leader Prashant Kishor has dropped a series of stunning predictions for the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections, forecasting a “certain defeat” for the ruling NDA coalition and asserting that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will not return to power. While Kishor himself will not contest, he laid out a high-stakes, all-or-nothing scenario for his own party.
Kishor claimed the BJP-led NDA is on shaky ground, pointing to internal dissent over seat-sharing arrangements. He cited recent expressions of displeasure from allies like Upendra Kushwaha of the Rashtriya Lok Morcha and Jitan Ram Manjhi of the Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) as evidence that “nothing is well in NDA.”
The strategist, who previously worked closely with Nitish Kumar, delivered a particularly grim forecast for his former associate’s Janata Dal (United). Kishor predicted the JD(U) would “struggle to win even 25 seats” in the 243-member assembly.
However, Kishor’s critique was not limited to the ruling alliance. He described the opposition INDIA bloc as being in a similar state of disarray, highlighting the “never-ending tiff between RJD and the Congress.”
For his own Jan Suraaj outfit, Kishor set an audacious goal, stating the party will either achieve a resounding victory or face a complete rout. “I expect a tally of either fewer than 10 seats or more than 150 seats. There is no possibility of anything in between,” he told PTI, adding that securing anything less than 150 seats “shall be a personal defeat for me.”
The Bihar Assembly elections will be held in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with the counting of votes scheduled for November 14.
