Academics, professionals, a Bhojpuri singer and a couple of dynasts in Prashant Kishor’s first list

Addressing a press conference at the party’s camp office in Patna, Jan Suraaj national president Uday Singh said that in keeping with the party’s “commitment to provide proportional representation to all communities”, they had given tickets to 17 candidates belonging to Extremely Backward Classes (including 1 from a Muslim group falling in the EBC category), 11 who belong to Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 7 Muslims, and one ST candidate from Valmiki Nagar in West Champaran.

Nine of the 51 candidates belong to the general category, while seven are women and one a transgender (Priti Kinnar from SC-reserved Bhorey seat in Gopalganj district). Kishor had earlier said that 40 of Jan Suraaj tickets would go to women.

The most high-profile names in the list are that of respected academician K C Sinha (from Kumhrar seat in Patna), and Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey (from Kargahar, which was talked about as a constituency Kishor could contest from).

Pandey, who joined the Jan Suraaj campaign earlier this year, was behind the hit BJP campaign song ‘Hum Modi sange rahab (We will stay with Modi)’ in last year’s Lok Sabha elections. The song garnered over 8 million views across platforms.

A renowned mathematician, K C Sinha has authored over 70 textbooks on the subject, over more than three decades, and served as Vice-Chancellor of multiple universities.

While Kishor has been critical of political dynasties, the Jan Suraaj list includes Jagriti Thakur, a dentist who is the granddaughter of prominent Socialist leader and the late Bihar chief minister Karpoori Thakur (from Morwa seat in Samastipur) and R C P Singh’s daughter Lata Singh (Asthawan in Nalanda). R C P Singh used to be a confidant of JD(U) supremo Nitish Kumar and is now a key member of the Jan Suraaj.

Karpoori Thakur is held in high regard by the EBCs, for having implemented the recommendations of the Mungerilal Commission in Bihar, including a 12% quota for EBCs, 8% for OBCs, 3% for women, and 3% for economically weaker sections among upper castes. The EBC population in Bihar stands at around 36%, encompassing 113 groups, and has been wooed successfully over the years by Nitish Kumar and the NDA.

Lata Singh is a lawyer, who earlier practised in the Patna High Court and is now a Supreme Court advocate.

The Jan Suraaj list also includes former MLA Kishor Kumar, who won as an Independent from Sonbarsa in 2005. He has got the ticket from Saharsa.

Yadu Vansh Giri, a senior High Court lawyer who has been a part of several landmark legal battles, including those involving the Bihar Public Service Commission, will be contesting on the Jan Suraaj ticket from Manjhi in Saran.

Retired police officer R K Mishra, a former director general of Home Guards, will contest from Darbhanga. He has been associated with the Jan Suraaj since its inception.

From Chapra seat, the Jan Suraaj has nominated Jai Prakash Singh, another retired police officer. An IPS officer of the 2000 batch, Singh earlier served in Himachal Pradesh, and has been active in grassroot politics in Bihar for the past year since taking voluntary retirement.

Three doctors feature in the list – Dr Arun Kumar, a former director of the prestigious Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences located in Patna, is the Jan Suraaj’s candidate from Matihani in Begusarai; Dr Lal Babu Prasad, who will contest from Dhaka in East Champaran, runs a clinic in Motihari; and Dr Amit Kumar Das, a noted physician from Muzaffarpur, will represent the Jan Suraaj from his home district.

Some of the other notable Jan Suraaj candidates are Sunil Kumar from Lauriya; Md Parvej Alam from Benipatti; Afroz Alam from Amour; Md Shahnawaz Alam from Baisi; Kunal Nishad alias Sonu Singh from Pranpur; Shoaib Khan from Darbhanga Rural; Vinay Kumar Varun from Parbatta; Kumari Poonam Sinha from Nalanda; Neha Kumari (Natraj) from Chenari (SC); and Lakshman Manjhi from Bodh Gaya (SC).

The list of 51 covers seats across the state, including West Champaran, Purnia, Kishanganj, Saharsa, Bhagalpur, Gaya, and Aurangabad districts.

Kishor took the political plunge after working as a political strategist with several parties and after a stint in the JD(U) as a senior leader.

No other party has announced candidates for Bihar so far. The Jan Suraaj is expected to come out with more names in the coming days.