Prashant Kishor mocks RJD, BJP after his nominee wins Council seat in Bihar bypoll
Afaque Ahmad, who won from Saran teachers’ constituency in a bypoll, has been an active member of Jan Suraj.
Political strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been touring Bihar for the last six months as part of his outreach campaign called Jan Suraj, on Thursday mocked the ruling RJD and opposition BJP in the state after one of his nominees won a seat in the state’s Legislative Council as an Independent candidate.
Afaque Ahmad, who won from Saran teachers’ constituency in a bypoll, has been an active member of Jan Suraj.
“Jan Suraj will neither cut the votes of BJP nor of RJD. These parties would be shown the door by public themselves. The kind of feedback we gathered, the public is completely upset...Champaran is a stronghold of the BJP whereas Siwan, Chapra and Gopalganj are the bastion of RJD. All these strongholds collapsed in front of the farmer’s boy (read Afaque Ahmad). This is not a simple matter...,” said Kishor, who was in Saran on Thursday, 187th day of his foot march.
Saran teachers’ constituency includes districts of East and West Champaran, Siwan, Saran and Gopalganj.
Ahmad, meanwhile, said Jan Suraj, a non-political outfit, has all the qualities to emerge as the alternative to both the ruling alliance mahagathbandhan and opposition BJP.
“We at Jan Suraj have vowed to scale up our fight for the cause of teachers, which includes restoration of pension scheme and state status for teachers,” he said, adding that efforts are on to unify and bring all factions of teachers under one banner to fight for their causes.
Ahmad has defeated his nearest rival Anand Puskar of the CPI, who was the mahagathbandhan nominee.
Prashant Kishor, who was earlier expelled from chief minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) after falling out with him, had begun his padyatra (foot march) from Mahatma Gandhi’s ashram Bhitiharwa in West Champaran on October 2 last year.
Biennial polls were held for four seats and bypoll for one seat of the Legislative Council on March 31.
BJP’s Awdesh narain Singh retained the Gaya graduate seat while Jeevan Kumar won from Gaya teachers’ constituency.
JD(U)’s Sanjeev Kumar Singh has won Kosi teachers’ seat while Virendra Narayan Singh of the same party retained Saran graduate seat.
The Saran teachers’ seat, which has been won by Ahmad in the bypoll, had fallen vacant following the death of CPI’s Kedar Nath Pandey.