- Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party has released a second list of 65 candidates for Bihar assembly election
- Jan Suraaj has announced candidates for 116 of the 243 Bihar assembly seats so far
- Candidates represent various communities including EBC, OBC, Minority, Scheduled Caste, and Tribe
Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party has released its second list of 65 candidates for the coming Bihar assembly elections, sticking to its core promise of inclusiveness and representation to every section. The suspense, though, remains on whether Kishor would contest. With this, Jan Suraaj has so far declared candidates for 116 seats. The party - which is contesting its maiden election and is seen as an untested entity -- has said it will field candidates from all 243 seats of Bihar.
Announcing the list in Patna, the party's national president, Uday Singh, said, "According to our promise to give representation to every community, candidates from the largest Extremely Backward Class group (10 Hindu, 4 Muslim) are being announced from 14 seats, 10 from the Other Backward Class and 14 from the Minority Class".
The new list includes Abhay Kant Jha - the lawyer who represented the victims of the 1989 Bhagalpur riots for free -- from Bhagalpur; Dr Shahnawaz Alam, a well-known physician from Siwan, who will contest from Badhariya, retired police officer Nasrullah Khan from Nokha (Rohtas), and Prof Shashikant Prasad from Phulwari, a Scheduled Caste community.
A Scheduled Tribe candidate, Kamlesh Paswan, has been named from Harnaut, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's home constituency.
In the first list, the party named 51 candidates, of whom 49 were first-time contestants. The list was a who's who of doctors, lawyers, former bureaucrats and police officers. The key rule for selection was a clean image, in keeping with the party's promise of cleaning up endemic corruption that has dogged the state for decades.
The big names included mathematician K C Sinha from Kumhrar (Patna), Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey from Kargahar, and Dr Jagriti Thakur, granddaughter of former chief minister and socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, from Morwa (Samastipur).
Kishor had said his candidates were chosen on basis of what they had done for the people. "Now, if you don't vote for such people, then it is not a burden on Prashant Kishor. This is a burden on the shoulders of the people of Bihar," he had said.
