PK blames BJP as 3 Jan Suraaj candidates withdraw from Bihar polls

Patna: Three candidates of Prashant Kishor-led Jan Suraaj (JS) walked out of the poll contest in the past three days without facing voters and later extended their support to the BJP, leaving the party managers shocked and annoyed.

With electioneering slowly picking up momentum in the Bihar assembly elections, a red-faced PK on Tuesday accused the BJP leadership of "coercing and intimidating" his party candidates out of fear of losing the elections--a charge described as "nonsense" by the saffron leadership.


The three JS candidates who withdrew from the Bihar poll contest included Dr Shashi Shekhar Sinha from Gopalganj, Dr Satya Prakash Tiwari from Brahmpur (Buxur) and Akhilesh Kumar alias Mutor Sao from Danapur seat in Patna.

The developments came amid PK's repeated remark to offer a third alternative to the people of Bihar, other than the NDA and the rival INDIA bloc. The newly launched political outfit is contesting all 243 assembly seats, making the Bihar poll contest very interesting.Kishor, a poll strategist who offered help to several parties before forming his own party last year, faces the biggest challenge of his political career.

So far, he had been preparing strategy for others but now he finds himself in the deep end of the pool and will be tested in the crucial assembly elections in his own state.

Straightway blaming the BJP leadership for pressurising his party candidates to withdraw from the contest, Kishor appealed to the Election Commission and the people of the state to take note of such incidents.

"In the past 4-5 days, three declared Jan Suraaj candidates who filed their nominations withdrew from the contest. They didn't do that on their own but were forced to withdraw their nominations by the top BJP leaders," Kishor alleged and even released photographs of their candidates with some union ministers, to prove his point.

He claimed his Gopalganj candidate Dr Sinha, a well-known doctor, had been actively campaigning for the past four days, but on Monday he complained some people were putting pressure on him to withdraw from the contest.

"Barely two hours after we had a telephonic conversation, Dr Sinha abruptly withdrew his nomination and switched off his cell phone," Kishor said.

"But the Danapur story was most bewildering. Our candidate mysteriously went missing from the scene on the last day of filing nomination papers. Soon we found him in the company of union ministers in Patna," PK said, alleging the "democracy is being openly throttled in Bihar and the people behind it are sadly the union ministers."

He added that BJP used to say JS doesn't exist but suddenly they have gone on "hijacking" our candidates.

However, the BJP termed the PK's allegations as "baseless and rubbish". "PK himself has become irrelevant and is desperately trying to get attention on our backs," said BJP's national spokesperson Guru Prakash Paswan. Denying any coercion or pressure behind their nomination withdrawal, Paswan said the JS candidates withdrew from the contest on their own, after finding the realities on the ground.

“Although PK has been on tour of the state for the past three years, the selection of candidates has not enthused the masses, given the non-political background of many of his candidates,” one analyst said.

He decided to stay out of the poll contest after initially announcing to fight against Tejashi Prasad Yadav, younger son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and leader of opposition in the state assembly, from the Raghopur seat.