Prashant Kishor’s party fails to open account in Bihar

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj party has failed to open its account as all its candidates were defeated by a huge margin in the bypolls.

The ruling NDA in Bihar on Saturday swept the bypolls to four Assembly segments, retaining Imamganj and wresting Tarari, Ramgarh and Belaganj constituencies from the INDIA bloc.

While the BJP won Tarari and Ramgarh; JD(U) and Hindustani Awami Morcha won Belaganj and Imamganj, respectively.

Barring Imamganj, Jan Suraaj candidates lost deposits from all seats.

Kishor, who launched his party on October 2, had fielded Mohammad Amjad from Belaganj, who stood third and got 17,285 votes. JD(U) candidate Manorama Devi won the election with 73,334 votes from the seat.

In Imamganj, Jitendra Paswan contested on the Jan Suraaj ticket and emerged third. Deepa Manjhi, daughter-in-law of minister Jitendra Ram Manjhi, won the election.

In Ramgarh, Jan Suraaj’s Sushil Kumar Singh came fourth. In Tarari, Kiran Singh was fielded by the Jan Suraaj, but she came third.

Even before the formal launch of the party, Kishor had been touring Bihar to interact with people on the ground. The Belaganj seat, which had been with the RJD since 1990s, was wrested by the JD(U). The RJD also suffered an embarrassing defeat in Ramgarh.