Tejashwi Yadav, Vijay Sinha file nominations; Prashant Kishor opts out of Bihar polls

Leader of the Opposition in the Bihar Assembly and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav filed his nomination papers on Wednesday from the Raghopur constituency in Vaishali district, seeking a third consecutive term. Deputy Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Vijay Kumar Sinha also filed his nomination papers from the Lakhisarai seat, along with several other party candidates. Meanwhile, Jan Suraaj Party founder and former election strategist Prashant Kishor announced that he would not contest the upcoming Assembly election, citing his “responsibility to campaign for other party candidates”.

Mr. Yadav was accompanied by his parents - RJD chief Lalu Prasad and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi - as well as his sister and Rajya Sabha MP Misa Bharti, and party leader Bhola Yadav, while filing his nomination papers at the district election office in Hajipur. He has earlier been elected from Raghopur in 2015 and 2020. His parents had also represented the Yadav-dominated constituency, except in 2010 when JD(U)’s Satish Kumar defeated Ms. Rabri Devi. The seat also has a sizeable Rajput voter base.

Mr. Kishor had earlier indicated that he might contest against Mr. Yadav from Raghopur “if his party decided so.” He launched the Jan Suraaj Party’s campaign from Raghopur on October 12 but later confirmed that he would not contest, saying he had “a lot of responsibilities to campaign for other party candidates.” The Jan Suraaj Party, officially founded on October 2, 2024, at Patna’s Veterinary College Ground, will field candidates in all 243 Assembly constituencies. So far, the party has announced two lists comprising 116 candidates and allotted “school bag” as its election symbol.

From Raghopur, the party has fielded Chanchal Kumar, a former JD(U) member and current vice-president of the Jan Suraaj youth wing. Mr. Kishor, while releasing the second list of candidates in Patna, said the party had ensured representation in proportion to population. “Representation will be in equity with the proportion of population,” he said.

Of the 116 candidates announced, 31 are from the Extremely Backward Classes, 21 each from the Backward and Minority communities, and 14 from the General category. Twenty-five of the seats are reserved.

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha filed his nomination from Lakhisarai, a seat he has held since 2010. Mr. Sinha, who served as Speaker of the Bihar Assembly between November 2020 and August 2022, was joined by fellow Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, Union Textiles Minister Giriraj Singh, and BJP leader and Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. Other BJP nominees, including Mithilesh Tiwari (Baikunthpur, Gopalganj), Sanjay Saraogi (Darbhanga), and Sanjiv Chaurasia (Digha, Patna), also filed their papers on Wednesday.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is expected to launch his campaign on October 16 from Samastipur, where he will attend the nomination filing of senior JD(U) leader Vijay Kumar Choudhary from the Sarairanjan constituency. Mr. Kumar is also likely to visit Darbhanga the following day. The JD(U) on Wednesday released its first list of 57 candidates, which includes several new faces and nominees from backward and extremely backward classes.