Patna, Sep 24 The Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) on Thursday announced candidates for three more of the eight Bihar Legislative Council seats going to polls on October 23, completing its list of nominees.
The party, which had announced candidates for the other five seats on September 20, has fielded Anuj Singh from the Patna Graduates’ constituency, currently represented by JD(U) MLC Neeraj Kumar, who is seeking a fourth consecutive term amid opposition to his candidature from within the party.
Neeraj Kumar’s candidature is being opposed by JD(U) MLA from Mokama, Anant Kumar Singh, who has been voicing support for Anuj Singh since speculation emerged that he could be the JSP candidate.
A don-turned-politician, Anant Kumar Singh, has been sore with Kumar since 2015, when the latter was fielded from Mokama by the party in assembly polls, but he was in the fray as an Independent.
The maverick politician claims to have “supporters across 26 assembly constituencies”, covered under the Patna Graduates seat, and has been asserting that “they all will support Anuj Singh”, a landlord from Nawada district who has been with the Prashant Kishor-led party for some time and had also contested last year’s assembly polls as a Jan Suraaj Party candidate.
Other candidates named on Thursday by the party are Vimohan Kumar (Tirhut Graduates) and Bhushan Jha (Tirhut Teachers).
On September 20, the party announced names of five candidates, including MLC Afaq Ahmed, who would seek to retain the Saran Teachers seat that he won in 2022 with support of Kishor, who was then carrying out a public awareness campaign that culminated in the floating of the outfit.
Other Jan Suraaj Party candidates announced earlier include Divya Jyoti (Patna Teachers), who joined the outfit a couple of weeks ago and SP Rai, who would seek to wrest Darbhanga Teachers, currently held by former state Congress president Madan Mohan Jha, though it is not clear whether the party will contest the seat again or concede it to the RJD, its domineering ally.
The remaining two candidates named by the fledgling party were Ravindra Yadav (Darbhanga Graduates) and Rajnish Ranjan (Kosi Graduates).
Names of the five candidates had been announced in the presence of Kishor, who promised “10,000 jobs in each constituency, just like my pledge for Bankipur, my assembly seat”.
Polling for the eight legislative council seats will take place on October 23, while counting of votes is scheduled for October 27.
(PTI News)
