Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj on Monday announced its second list of candidates, for 65 Assembly constituencies in Bihar, taking the total number of declared nominees to 116 out of the state’s 243 seats.
The latest list includes 19 candidates from reserved constituencies – 18 Scheduled Caste (SC) seats and one Scheduled Tribe (ST). Significantly, the Jan Suraaj has fielded an SC candidate from an unreserved constituency as well, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s home seat of Harnaut.
Kishor said this was in keeping with the Jan Suraaj’s promise to offer representation to all communities, and that the party would ensure representation to all castes and classes in its total list of 243.
Apart from SC/ST candidates, include 1 from a general seat, the party’s list of 65 includes 14 from Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), 10 from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 11 from the general category, and 14 Muslim candidates (of whom 4 belong to EBCs).
Two of the candidates are women – Tanuja Kumari from Islampur (Nalanda) and Indu Gupta from Hasanpur (Samastipur).
With Kishor travelling to Raghopur – RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s constituency – on Saturday, speculation had been rife that the Jan Suraaj would be announcing the candidate from the seat in its second list. But Raghopur does not figure in the second list.
A notable new name is Abhay Kant Jha, a 74-year-old lawyer who represented victims of the 1989 Bhagalpur communal riots, which left around a thousand people dead, and worked for their rehabilitation for free. Jha has been fielded from Bhagalpur.
Janardan Yadav, a four-time MLA from Narpatganj, who resigned from the BJP in September, has also got the ticket. He won his first election in the post-Emergency period as a Janata Party candidate. He lost in 2015 from Narpatganj.
Hemant Choubey, the son of former four-time BJP Buxar MP Lalmuni Choubey, will contest from Chainpur. Lalmuni, who last won in 2004 from Buxar, joined the Jan Suraaj in August.
Other key candidates of the party include retired DSP Nasrullah Khan from Nokha (Rohtas), academic Prof Shashikant Prasad from Phulwari (SC), and Dr Shahnawaz from Barharia (Siwan). The other minority candidates include Md Ekramul Haque (Thakurganj), Naaz Ahmad Khan alias Pappu Khan (Kesaria), and Aamir Haider (Bahadurpur).
The Harnaut seat from where the Jan Suraaj has fielded an SC candidate, Kamlesh Paswan, is seen as a traditional JD(U) stronghold. Nitish won the seat in 1990 and 1995.
Like its first list of 51, the Jan Suraaj has fielded several OBCs and EBCs, and professionals and academics, including Dr Naval Kishore Chowdhary from Bathnaha (SC) in Sitamarhi, and Dr Mrityunjay from Cheria Bariarpur in Begusarai. Bablu Soren has been fielded from Manihari (Katihar), the sole ST seat for which the Jan Suraaj announced a candidate on Monday.
Among the notable names in the Jan Suraaj’s first list, released four days ago, were mathematician K C Sinha from Kumhrar (Patna), Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey from Kargahar, and dentist Dr Jagriti Thakur, granddaughter of former chief minister and socialist icon Karpoori Thakur, from Morwa (Samastipur). The list also featured a transgender candidate, and seven women candidates.
