Ajay Kanu, who plotted 2005 Jehanabad jail break, seeks RJD ticket for wife

Ajay Kanu alias Ajay Sao told reporters in Patna that he met RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday to pitch for a party ticket from Jehanabad

PATNA: Ajay Kanu, the former Naxal commander convicted for the 2005 Jehanabad jailbreak case, on Wednesday, said that he is trying to get a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) ticket for his wife from the Jehanabad parliamentary constituency.

Ajay Kanu did not say if he received any assurance from Lalu Yadav when he handed over his wife’s application for the RJD ticket on Friday

Kanu alias Ajay Sao told reporters in Patna that he met RJD founder Lalu Prasad Yadav on Friday to pitch for a party ticket from the Lok Sabha constituency. The RJD last won the seat in 2004. Chandeshwar Prasad of the Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) is the sitting MP.

Kanu did not say if he received any assurance from Lalu Yadav when he handed over his wife’s application on Friday. “Currently Chandeshwar Chandrawansi of JD (U) is the sitting MP from Jehanabad. He belongs to the Kahar community while I belong to the Kanu community, a most backward class,” said Kanu.

“No political party has ever fielded a candidate from the Kanu community and I hope that Lalu Prasad’s give the ticket for my wife,” he added.

Former Bihar minister Surendra Yadav is also a contender for the seat.

Kanu plotted the audacious attack on the Jehanabad jail in November 2005 that saw hundreds of Naxals holding the town hostage and storming into the district jail leading to the release of 389 inmates including the Naxal commander. He was arrested again a little over a year later when Kanu and two women activists on their way from Dhanbad to Kolkata were intercepted by the police on February 4, 2007.

Kanu, a graduate of Jehanabad College who joined the PWG in 1980 to avenge the killing of his father in a land dispute, was released from jail in January 2020 on bail.

He faced 42 cases at the time of his arrest in 2007 and has been cleared in 36 cases by the court. Kanu, was, however, convicted in the Jehanabad jailbreak case and was released after the Patna high court granted him bail on December 4, 2019.

Kanu took his first steps to switch to electoral politics after he joined a local outfit, Lokhit Adhikar Party. His wife Sharda Devi, had previously contested the local body elections from Chauhar panchayat of Arwal district in 2021 but lost.