PATNA: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor (PK)-backed Jan Suraaj, on Thursday announced the first list of 51 candidates for Bihar assembly elections, including former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur’s granddaughter but largely from non-political backgrounds.Taking the lead over the two major alliances–NDA and the INDIA bloc, Kishor said he is giving options to masses to choose beyond the available two alternatives.
So far, PK has lent his services to several parties such as BJP, JD(U), Congress, TMC, AAP and YSRCP but now his own party has joined the poll fray, trying to set a new standard in politics.Jan Suraaj’s list of candidates include several medical professionals, academics, retired police officers, lawyer, singer, kin of former CM and a transgender.For example, Dr Lal Babu Prasad (Dhaka assembly seat), Dr Amit Kumar Das (Muzaffarpur), Dr Shashi Shekhar Sinha (Gopalganj), Dr Arun Kumar (Matihani), Dr Vijay Kumar Gupta (Bhojpur), Dr Narain Prasad (Valmiki Nagar), and Dr Ajit Kumar (Imamganj) are well known doctors, claimed party’s media in-charge Obaidur Rahman said.Similarly, another candidate KC Sinha fielded from Kumhrar seat happens to be the former vice-chancellor of Patna University while RK Mishra and Jai Prakash Singh are retired police officers. Jagriti Thakur, who was fielded from Morwa in Samastipur district. is the granddaughter of veteran socialist leader and former Bihar CM Karpoori Thakur who was posthumously awarded India’s highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna, in Jan 2024.Other two JS candidates are Yadu Vansh Giri who happens to be a prominent lawyer and Ritesh Ranjan Pandey who is a Bhojpuri singer. While Giri was fielded from Manjhi (Saran), Ritesh was fielded from Kargahar in Rohtas district. The JS has also given a chance to Priti Kinner, a transgender who has been fielded from Bhorey (SC) seat in Gopalganj district.The fledgling party has also taken care of maintaining caste equations while finalising tickets for candidates in the state where caste remains a deciding factor. Of the 51 candidates whose names were announced on Thursday, 17 come from the extremely backward class (EBC), 11 from other backward classes (OBC), nine from general category and seven from the Muslim community.A total of seven seats are reserved for scheduled castes and tribes. Of the total candidates, five happen to be women.“We have finalised the list after much consideration and taking feedback from the general masses. We will spring surprises,” party spokesperson Rahman claimed, adding they have accommodated the people from every community while deciding the names of candidates.
About the Author
