Prashant Kishor alleges 3 candidates of his party withdrew from Bihar polls under BJP's 'pressure'
Patna(PTI): Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor on Tuesday alleged that three candidates of his Jan Suraaj Party in the Bihar elections withdrew their nominations under "pressure" from the BJP.
Addressing a press conference, Kishor alleged that the ruling NDA was so scared of losing the elections that it was threatening opposition candidates to withdraw from the race.
"Democracy is being murdered. There has been no such precedent in the country," he alleged, urging the Election Commission to ensure the security of the candidates.
The candidates who withdrew from the race were fielded in the Danapur, Brahampur, and Gopalganj seats, he said.
"The BJP is trying to replicate the Surat model, in which their candidate got elected unopposed, as all other nominees were coerced to pull out. The BJP does not realise that voters had punished it across the country for it, and it won just 240 seats, though it had bragged that the tally would be 400-plus in last year's Lok Sabha polls," he added.
Kishor's party had announced candidates for all 243 seats in Bihar. With the withdrawal of three candidates from the race, it will now fight on 240 seats as the last date for filing of nominations has already passed.
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Trump says he ‘hasn’t even thought about’ continuing Iran ceasefire
Washington: US President Donald Trump has said he has not yet considered whether he would continue the ceasefire involving Iran, while also claiming the United States holds the advantage in negotiations.
Speaking to reporters, Trump said he was prepared to make a deal with “whoever is running the show” in Iran.
“They are fighting with each other, there’s tremendous infighting. They’re probably fighting for leadership in many cases. I think they’re fighting not to be leader because we knocked out two levels of leaders,” he said.
Trump added, “When they want they can call me. We have all the cards, we’ve won everything.”
Referring to ongoing negotiations, he said, “They gave us a paper that should’ve been better. And, interestingly, immediately when I cancelled it [envoy trip to Pakistan], within 10 minutes we got a new paper that was much better.”
“We talked about they will not have a nuclear weapon, very simple … They offered a lot, but not enough,” he added.
When asked whether he would continue the ceasefire, Trump replied, “I haven’t even thought about it.”
The remarks come as uncertainty remains over the future of the temporary truce and broader negotiations between Washington and Tehran.
