Poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party on Wednesday named former vice chief of army staff, Lieutenant General Krishna Singh, as its candidate for bypoll to Tarari assembly seat in Bihar. The voting will take place for four Bihar seats on November 13.
Tarari Vidhan Sabha seat is in Bhojpur and it had fallen vacant after the election of CPI-ML’s Sudama Prasad to the Lok Sabha. Singh, a highly decorated officer and whose name is associated with many major operations, is a native of Tarari.
“This is time to pay back to the society and that is what made me think of contesting election and Jan Suraaj offered hope and promise. I was impressed with the way Jan Suraaj reached out to people and I am happy that I have got the opportunity to serve my native place,” said Singh after Jan Suraaj working president Manoj Bharti announced his name in the presence of Prashant Kishor.
Singh was also candid in expressing his displeasure over the Agniveer scheme, which the INDIA block has also been critical of. “Four years are not enough to get fully absorbed in a regiment, which becomes like a family for the Armymen. There should be reconsideration of the scheme,” he added.
Jan Suraaj, which became a political party on October 2 only, is the first party to announce the candidate for the by-election. Prashant Kishor said the candidates for the remaining seats will also be announced in the days to come and the difference from candidates of other parties will be clearly visible to the people.
“Equally capable names for the three other seats will be out in the next few days. From Tarari, Lt Gen Singh’s candidature is a matter of pride for Bihar and Tarari, as he is only the second person from the state to hold the vaunted position of vice chief of Army staff after Lt Gen SK Sinha. Tarari became synonymous with illegal sand mining and land mafia, but now it will have a different connotation. He is the son of the soil. The by-elections will have its impact on the Assembly elections and Lt Gen Singh will give it the strength and direction,” he added.
Singh will have a triangular contest. From the INDIA block, CPI-ML will field its candidate from there, while BJP is likely to get the seat in the NDA. However, both are yet to announce their candidates.
The by-election for the four seats were necessitated after four MLAs Jitan Ram Manjhi, Sudama Prasad, Sudhakar Singh and Surendra Yadav got elected to the Lok Sabha, creating vacancies in Imamganj (Gaya), Tarari (Bhojpur) and Ramgarh (Aurangabad) and Belaganj (Gaya) respectively.
Though Kishor is a new player in Bihar politics, but not new to the way politics is played in the state and across the country, having worked closely with the top leadership of most of the parties.
