Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Oct 9: The Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly Tejashwi Prasad Yadav on Thursday promised a government job for a member in each family of jobless if his Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)-led Mahagathbandhan is voted to power.
The RJD leader said he would bring a new law to this effect within 20 days of coming to power, and ensure that a member from each family where no one has a job gets employment within 20 months of the new government taking charge.
Tejashwi had changed the 2020 election narrative by promising 10 lakh jobs, and the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan had got 110 seats, just 12 seats short of a simple majority to form the government. The RJD had emerged as the single-largest party with 75 seats, and Tejashwi has been attempting a similar narrative with his new promise for the 2025 elections.
Speaking to reporters in Patna, he said, “My first announcement after the election notification is that whichever Bihar family has no government job, we will bring a new law to ensure a government job in such families mandatorily. They (the NDA) have not given any jobs. But once we form the government, we will enact a new law within 20 days and ensure that all families without government jobs get a government job within 20 months of the formation of our government.”
He later posted on Facebook in Hindi, “Under the slogan of economic justice, today we have made a historic announcement. We will ensure that every family in Bihar, where no one has a government job, gets a job through a new Act. This government failed to provide jobs for 20 years. As soon as our government is formed, we will create a ‘Special Job/Employment Act’ within 20 days and ensure every family gets a job within 20 months.”
Meanwhile, a mathematician who authored textbooks for generations, former bureaucrats, retired police officers, and doctors, are among the 51 candidates that election strategist-turned politician Prashant Kishor-led Jan Suraaj Party announced on Thursday afternoon. This is the first list of candidates that Jan Suraaj has released for the two-phase election in Bihar next month.
In the first list, 16 per cent of the candidates are Muslims and 17 per cent are from extremely backward communities. Kishor, a poll strategist-turned-politician, has been vocal about corruption in politics, so a key focus area while choosing candidates has been their clean image. Kishor has roped in several former bureaucrats and police officers for the poll contest.
Among the list of JSP 17 candidates are from the Extremely Backward Class (EBC), 11 from Backward Classes (BC), 7 from the Scheduled castes, seven from the minority community and nine from the General Category. According to the Bihar caste survey report 2022, the EBC comprises the largest section of the population (36.0148%) in the state, followed by Backward Class (27.1286%) and Scheduled Caste (19.6518%). The General Category of population comprises the State as 15.5224%, said the survey report.
Among the names in the list of party candidates, senior JSP leader R.K. Mishra will be contesting from the Darbhanga town Assembly seat, while noted Patna High Court lawyer and JSP member Y.B. Giri will be the party candidate from Manjhi constituency of Saran district. YB Giri is Jan Suraaj Party’s candidate from Manjhi. A Senior Advocate in Patna High Court, YB Giri has been part of several high-profile cases. He has also served as Additional Advocate General of Bihar and Additional Solicitor General of India for central government cases in Patna High Court.
Eminent mathematician K C Sinha will contest the poll from the Kumhrar constituency of Patna Central. KC Sinha has served as Vice Chancellor of Patna University. The books he authored have been followed in schools in Bihar and several other states for decades.
Jan Suraaj’s candidate from the Muzaffarpur seat, Dr Amit Kumar Das is an alumnus of Patna Medical College and Hospital and has worked to spread awareness and take basic health facilities to rural areas. He and his wife, also a doctor, run a hospital in Muzaffarpur. Popular Bhojpuri film singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey will be party candidate from upper caste Brahmin-dominated Kargahar constituency of Rohtas district.
The first list of candidates does not mention Kishor’s name, keeping alive the suspense over whether he is contesting the polls. Kishor has said he would like to contest from Raghopur, RJD stronghold, and Tejashwi Yadav’s seat, or Kargahar, his home constituency. In Jan Suraaj’s first list, Ritesh Ranjan (Pandey) has been named as a candidate from Kargahar, indicating that Kishor may eventually contest from Raghopur.
Party’s national president Uday Singh announced that JSP would release its second list of party candidates in the next couple of days. “The list of party candidates will be released now every one-two day as there is less time left for the poll,” Mr Singh told a huge battery of media persons gathered at Mr Kishor’s residence at Patliputra Colony.
Party founder Prashant Kishor, who was not present when the list was released by JSP leaders, however, will kick off the party’s poll campaign on October 11 from Raghopur (Vaishali) Assembly constituency, from where Tejashwi Yadav has been winning poll since last two consecutive terms 2015 and 2020. JSP leader R.C.P Singh, who earlier was close to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, read out names of party candidates from a mobile phone which was later circulated to media persons.
With the Assembly elections just weeks ahead in Bihar, leaders of other political parties were meeting in a closed-door meeting on Thursday to finalise the list of party candidates to contest the poll. Some of the alliance partners of the ruling NDA, like Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Chirag Paswan and Jitan Ram Manjhi of Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular), are said to be not satisfied with the number of seats offered to them.
Similar is the situation reeling among the Opposition mahagathbnadhan (grand alliance) bloc, where constituent Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP) of Mukesh Sahani, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Rashtriya Lok Janshakti Party of Pashupati Kumar Paras and Congress parties are still hobnobbing to garner the maximum number of seats to contest out of the total 243-member state assembly. Mukesh Sahani has been demanding 60 seats and the post of Deputy Chief Minister. The Sahani population of boatmen and fishermen in Bihar is about 9.6%.
