PATNA: The Jan Suraaj Party on Thursday said it will announce its candidate for the Bankipur Assembly bypoll on July 5. However, the party has maintained suspense over whether party founder Prashant Kishor will contest the seat.The bypoll was necessitated after BJP national president Nitin Nabin resigned as the Bankipur MLA following his election to the Rajya Sabha, news agency PTI reported.Earlier in the day, the Election Commission announced that the notification for the bypoll will be issued on July 6. Nominations can be filed until July 13, polling will be held on July 30, and votes will be counted on August 3.Addressing a press conference after the schedule was announced, Jan Suraaj Party state president Manoj Bharti said the party would declare its candidate on July 5.“We reiterate that the Jan Suraaj Party will contest the Bankipur bypoll. Many people want Prashant Kishor himself to be the candidate. Deliberations are underway, and the candidate will be formally announced on July 5,” he said.Kishor, who launched the Jan Suraaj Party less than two years ago, has said he is “not averse” to contesting from the BJP stronghold and has described the bypoll as a “referendum” on the Samrat Choudhary-led NDA government in Bihar, PTI reported.He has been campaigning in Patna, urging voters to give his party a chance, arguing that a single seat would not significantly impact either the ruling NDA, which has a strong majority in the Assembly, or the opposition INDIA bloc, which performed poorly in the last Assembly elections.BJP leaders expressed confidence that the party would retain the Bankipur seat, which it has held continuously since the 1990s.Party sources termed the announcement of its candidate a “mere formality” and recalled that Kishor had earlier spoken of contesting against RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav from Raghopur but did not eventually enter the race.The opposition INDIA bloc is yet to announce its candidate for the bypoll. It remains unclear whether the RJD, the Congress, or one of their Left allies will contest the seat against the NDA.(With agency inputs)
