Jan Suraaj to field 75 EBC candidates in 2025 Bihar elections: Prasant Kishor

PATNA: The Jan Suraasj Abhiyan as a political platform will field 75 candidates from the extremely backward castes (EBCs) in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, said the organisation’s founder Prashant Kishor at a function to mark birth centenary celebration of former chief minister Karpoori Thakur in Patna on Saturday.
Citing his roles in scripting electoral successes of many political parties in the last one decade, Kishor said he had prepared the strategies, pooled in resources and other necessities for victory of the candidates in the fray. “None faced defeat whose hands in the polls I have held in the past 10 years. Now I am holding the hands of the people of Bihar and their victory is certain,” added Kishor.
On December 4, Kishor, who had on October 2, 2022 embarked on a 3,500-km-long padyatra to traverse the whole of Bihar, had announced that the Jan Suraaj would contest assembly elections in 2025. He chose to address the event after giving a break to the ongoing march in north Bihar. He also announced holding similar events at all the divisional headquarters in the next few months.
Calling up on the people of EBCs to realise their strength and not to stand behind their self-proclaimed leaders, Kishor, who had once served as the national vice-president of the Janata Dal (United), alleged that the recently conducted caste-based economic survey had revealed that there was hardly any change in their socio-economic status in the past 30-35 years despite following the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and chief minister Nitish Kumar. “All of them have cheated you for votes and did actually nothing for their (EBCs) welfare,” said the Jan Suraaj founder.
“Don’t stand behind the flag of any party. Be the flag-bearer and the Jan Suraaj will be backing you up from behind with all its resources,” said Kishor, while daring the political parties to put up EBC candidates in similar strength in the next assembly elections.
Stating that the reservation facility won’t help the EBCs change their lives, Kishor said only 1.57% of the people get government jobs. “The remaining 98.5% people are not in government services. Unless the people ensure good education for their children, they will not get the benefit of reservation. Therefore, you should have a plan to ensure 100% education of their children,” he said.
He announced that the Jan Suraaj will bear the expenses of providing free coaching facilities to 500 children of the EBC community every year to help them get suitable jobs. “About 10-12 meritorious students of the EBC will be selected from every district from the next month for job-oriented coaching,” said Kishor.
Former head of the Economics department of Patna University and political analyst Nawal Kishore Chaudhary said that Prashant Kishor knows how to make oneself relevant in Bihar politics. “EBCs constitute over 36% of Bihar’s population. Anyone willing to succeed in politics in Bihar needs to nurture EBCs and OBCs, who together form 63% vote base. The Congress is also targeting this segment. Kishor wants to wean away Nitish Kumar’s vote bank and unseat him from power, as numbers count in democracy,” said Chaudhary.