Jan Suraaj names five candidates for Bihar MLC elections, three more to follow

Jan Suraaj Party founder and Bankipur MLA Prashant Kishor has named five candidates for the upcoming Bihar Legislative Council elections, pledging to announce nominees for the remaining three seats within the next three to four days.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Kishor revealed the party will contest elections across eight constituencies, four graduates' and four teachers' seats, whose terms expire in November. The election announcement is expected soon.

Afaq Ahmed to seek re-election from Saran

Among the five declared candidates, Afaq Ahmed will seek re-election from Saran teachers' constituency, a seat he won six years ago with support from Mr. Kishor, who was then working as a poll strategist and had not yet launched his political party.

The other four candidates announced include lawyer and academician-turned-politician Divya Jyoti, who joined Jan Suraaj last week and will contest from Patna teachers' constituency currently held by JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar. S.P. Rai has been fielded from Darbhanga teachers' constituency, while Ravindra Yadav will contest from Darbhanga graduates' seat and Rajnish Ranjan from Kosi graduates' constituency.

Party to form joint struggle committee for teachers' demands

Mr. Kishor said Jan Suraaj would work to bring together various teachers' organisations and form a joint struggle committee to pursue their demands. The party will campaign for three key demands: implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission for teachers, bringing educators from aided institutions into the regular teachers' category, and setting norms for assigning non-academic duties to teachers.

These would be treated as demands of Jan Suraaj, and the party would work with teachers to pressure the government to fulfill them before the next Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Kishor claimed.

10,000 jobs promised for each graduate constituency

Addressing graduate constituency voters, Mr. Kishor promised that if Jan Suraaj Party candidates win, 10,000 jobs would be facilitated for unemployed graduates in each graduate constituency, similar to a job-related promise he had made to educated unemployed voters in his Bankipur constituency.

Elections to cover 30 districts

The Legislative Council election, separate from the Bihar Assembly polls, will cover four graduates' and four teachers' constituencies across around 30 districts. Jan Suraaj had earlier said it would contest all eight seats as part of its organisational expansion strategy.

In MLC polls, candidates' local influence, standing among graduate and teacher voters, and the strength of party organisations are expected to be key factors.

Source: The Hindu