The Jan Suraj Party on Friday claimed that the BJP was “afraid” of its founder Prashant Kishor after the saffron party replaced its candidate for the upcoming Bankipur Assembly in Bihar.
In a post on
The reaction came after the BJP’s original candidate, Abhishek Kumar Sinha, withdrew his nomination a day after submitting his papers, citing family reasons.
Sinha withdraws
“The BJP has made me the NDA candidate in the by-poll to the Bankipur assembly seat. I would like to express my gratitude to the central and state leadership. However, due to family reasons, I cannot contest the by-election,” Sinha said at a press conference in Patna.
The BJP had announced Sinha, a youth wing leader, as its candidate on Tuesday for the bypoll to the Bankipore seat, which fell vacant after BJP national president Nitin Nabin resigned from the post of MLA after being elected to the Rajya Sabha.
The party has now named Neeraj Kumar Sinha as its candidate to face Kishor in the by-elections to be held on July 30. RJD’s Rekha Kumari is also in the fray.
Prashant Kishor had announced his candidacy for the Bankipur elections on Sunday, describing the contest as a “referendum” on the performance of the BJP-led government in Bihar. Addressing party workers in Patna, the former political strategist urged nearly four lakh voters in the constituency to “vote to make a difference”.
The deadline for submitting nominations is July 13. Votes will be cast on July 30 and counted on August 3.
Kishore, who is bidding to clinch the seat that has elected Nabin five times in a row, the last occasion being the Assembly elections last year, pointed out that Union Home Minister Amit Shah did not give up his Gujarat Vidhan Sabha seat when he became BJP president.
“Yes, I know that the BJP considers Bankipur its stronghold. Voters here have time and again put their trust in Nitin Naben. But Nitin Naben took no time in forgetting them. He gave up the seat at the first opportunity to enter Parliament,” the former poll strategist told a PTI video.
Kishor rejected the BJP’s claim that after his election to the party’s top post, Nabin’s continuation as a member of the state assembly had become untenable, which was the reason he was elected to the Rajya Sabha in April.
“We have the example of Amit Shah. He was a member of the Gujarat Legislative Council when he became BJP president. He did not give up his seat. There was no forcing Nabin to move to Delhi. He chose to do that,” noted the IPAC founder, who ran Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election campaign in 2014.
(With inputs from PTI)
