Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who had been hinting at taking on Bihar’s Leader of Opposition Tejashwi Prasad Yadav from Raghopur, has made his intentions clearer. Kishor said that under normal circumstances, any seat represented by the Chief Minister is assumed to be the “karmbhoomi (place of action)” seat. But with Nitish Kumar being a member of the Upper House in the state legislature, it is the Leader of Opposition’s assembly segment that should be considered the “karmbhoomi” seat, Kishor said.
“One generally likes to contest from the janmbhoomi (place of birth) seat or karmbhoomi (place of action) seat. I would have loved to contest against CM Nitish Kumar. Since he does not contest polls, I would take Raghopur as the karmbhoomi seat. I have a choice between Karahgar (Rohtas) and Raghopur. But my party will have to take a final call on it,” he said during a TV interview recently.
“Had Nitish Kumar contested from any Assembly seat, I would have even fought with my party to contest against him,” he said.
Tejashwi sharply reacted to Kishor throwing him a challenge: “The media has been giving more importance to a newly born party than several parties with a sizeable number of MPs and MLAs. Why discuss him (Kishor)? Let PM Narendra Modi contest against me from Raghopur. But remember, he will have to leave his premiership.”
A senior RJD leader said they are “not going to attach much importance to the Jan Suraaj Party”. “There are only two alliances in the contest – NDA and INDIA bloc,” he said.
Kishor, who has been trying to emerge as a third contender in the upcoming assembly polls, could get more traction if he decides to contest from Raghopur against Tejashwi, a two-time MLA, political observers believe. Raghopur has been a traditional RJD bastion with former CMs, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, having represented it. Rabri had lost the seat to JD(U)’s Satish Prasad Yadav.
The Karahgar seat was created after delimitation, and has been represented by Janta Dal (United)’s Ramdhani Singh and Bashistha Singh, as well as Congress’s Santosh Kumar Mishra.
In the 2020 Assembly elections, the RJD had won Raghopur with a 48.74% vote share, trailed by the BJP at 29.64%. The 2015 polls saw a much tighter contest, with the RJD securing 49.15% of the vote share, against the BJP runner-up at 36.9%.
In Karahgar, the Congress had won in 2020 with 30.76% of the vote share ahead of the JD(U) at 28.66%. In 2015, the JD(U) had won the seat with a 32.08% vote share, followed by the Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP, now known as the Rashtriya Lok Morcha) at 36.9%.
