Jan Suraj Party founder Prashant Kishor and BJP leader Neeraj Kumar Sinha on Monday filed their nomination papers for the bypoll to Bankipur Assembly seat in Bihar.
Kishor, who is seeking to wrest the BJP stronghold vacated by its national president Nitin Nabin two months ago, was accompanied by his wife, Jahanavi Das, a doctor from Assam state.
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Das avoids the spotlight, but chooses to be by her husband, who is making his first appearance on the political scene.
Submitting his nomination papers, Kishor told reporters: “This is not just my nomination but a call for political change in Bihar where people with criminal records should give up their positions.”
Notably, Kishor had been claiming that the bypoll would be a “referendum” on the NDA government in Bihar and that his victory would force Samrat Chaudhary, the first BJP leader to head a government in the state, who was named in a murder case in the 1990s, to step down.
Read also | ‘BJP is afraid of Prashant Kishor’: Jan Suraj after Abhishek Kumar Sinha withdraws from nomination
The IPAC founder, who announced his party almost two years ago, arrived at the complex in a huge procession that started at the busy Dak Pangalu crossing, about a kilometer away.
Earlier, he had also addressed a well-attended meeting at a public place near police lines.
On the other hand, senior BJP figures like local MP Ravi Shankar Prasad and state president Sanjay Saraogi accompanied Sinha, the 32-year-old BJP Yuva Morcha leader, who was hastily roped in after Abhishek ‘Bunty’ Kumar withdrew himself from the electoral contest.
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Abhishek had submitted his nomination papers last week, but later withdrew his candidacy, citing “family reasons.”
