Jan Suraaj releases 1st list of 51 candidates for Bihar polls, fields Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Pandey

Patna, Oct 9 (PTI) The Jan Suraaj Party on Thursday released its first list of 51 candidates for the Bihar assembly elections, but did not confirm whether its founder Prashant Kishor will contest the polls.

The candidates include Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Pandey, former IPS officer RK Mishra and and Jagriti Thakur who is the granddaughter of legendary socialist leader, the late Karpoori Thakur.

Addressing a press conference here, party national president Udai Singh said Kishor is likely to hit the campaign trail on October 11 from Raghopur, the constituency of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

"We will soon release a list of candidates for other seats. If you find Kishor ji's name on the list, then he will be contesting. It's quite clear. Kishor ji will launch the party's election campaign from Raghopur on October 11," Singh said.

Of the 51 candidates named, 11 belong to backward classes, 17 to extremely backward classes, nine are from minority communities and the rest from the general category, he added.

The prominent nominees include former IPS officer of Bihar cadre RK Mishra (Darbhanga), former Patna University and Nalanda Open University Vice Chancellor K C Sinha, who is known more for his popular books on mathematics (Kumhrar) and Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey (Kargahar).

A few doctors such as Amit Kumar Das (Muzaffarpur), Shashi Shekhar Sinha (Gopalganj) and Lal Babu Prasad (Dhaka) are also in the list.

Other notable candidates include Lata Singh, daughter of former Union minister and Jan Suraaj leader RCP Singh (Asthawa), Jagriti Thakur (Morwa) and lawyer and party leader Y V Giri (Manjhi), Pritti Kinnar from the third gender community (Bhorey).

The assembly elections in Bihar will be held on November 6 and 11, while the counting of votes will be done on November 14. PTI PKD MNB NN