Bihar Battle: Docs, singer, transgender on Kishor’s list of 51; RJD vows one job per family

Political strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj stuck to caste formula, but also added elements of professionalism and freshness of faces as the party on Thursday announced its first list of 51 candidates for the Bihar Assembly elections.

Though Jan Suraaj founder Kishor’s name was not on the list, party’s national president Uday Singh said he would hit the campaign trail on October 11 from Raghopur, a seat represented by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Former Deputy CM Tejashwi, meanwhile, announced that if the RJD-Congress Mahagathbandhan won, it would “bring an Act within 20 days of coming to power” to ensure at least one member of every family in the state had a government job. “I will end the problem of unemployment in Bihar,” Tejashwi said at a hurriedly convened press conference. Targeting the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP government, he said it had failed to give “sufficient jobs” to the unemployed youth during its 20-year rule. “As the Deputy CM, I was instrumental in providing 5 lakh jobs,” he said. The JD(U) mocked the claim, saying the appointments happened only because Nitish was the CM. “Tejashwi had no role in it… The RJD has sensed defeat and is making wild promises,” said JD(U) spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.

Uday Singh, who is a former BJP MP, said the Jan Suraaj Party had kept its promise of giving representation to all sections.

“Our list has 17 candidates from extremely backward classes (EBCs), 11 from other backward classes (OBCs), seven from the Muslim community and rest from the general category,” he said.

Prominent names on the list included popular Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey from Kargahar and Pritti Kinnar, a transgender, from Bhore seat in Gopalganj. Incidentally, this is the first time any party has fielded a transgender in the state.

Only one of the 51 faces—former MLA Kishore Kumar Munna, fielded from Saharsa—has legislative experience. There are seven doctors on the list, including AK Das (Muzaffarpur) and Arun Kumar (Begusarai) who have earned reputation professionally. Similarly, YB Giri, nominated from Manjhi in Saran district, is a prominent lawyer. KC Sinha (Kumhrar seat in Patna) is a distinguished mathematician, with several books to his credit. Former IPS officer RK Mishra has been fielded from Darbhanga. An analyst said a crucial aspect was that all these candidates had been fielded from seats where their caste had a strong presence.

Among the several women on the list, Dr Jagriti Thakur (Morwa in Samastipur) stood out as she is the granddaughter of EBC icon and three-term CM late Karpoori Thakur.

He was awarded the Bharat Ratna in 2024. Another prominent woman face is Lata Singh, a Supreme Court lawyer and the daughter of party leader and former Union Minister RCP Singh. She has been fielded from Asthawan in Nalanda, which is the hotbed of Kurmi caste politics.

India