Bihar: Prashant Kishore's Jan Suraj Party's maiden entry in legislative council; candidate wins Saran Teachers' seat

Patna: Election strategist Prashant Kishore, who had started his Jan Suraj Yatra on October 2, 2022, tasted his first electoral success on Thursday when Jan Suraj Party candidate Afaq Ahmad was elected to the Bihar legislative council from the Teachers constituency.

Afaq had been part of yatra since October 2022

Afaq Ahmad from Bettiah had been associated with the yatra since October 2, 2022, and Prashant Kumar had covered the five districts of West Champaran, East Champaran, Siwan, Saran and Gopalganj last month. Teachers of the five districts are members of the electoral college of the Teachers constituency.

PK had held meetings with teachers during the yatra and his last two meetings were at Amnour and Baniyapur in Saran.

Ahmad defeated Anand Pushkar, Mahagathbandhan candidate by over 1,500 votes. BJP candidate Dharmendra Kumar with 455 votes was fifth.

PK attacks both the mahagathbandhan and BJP

In his meetings, PK is attacking both the Mahagathbandhan and the BJP. His sharp attacks on Nitish Kumar who had appointed him as his adviser in 2017 in northern Bihar is being appreciated by the students and teachers. He is attacking Lalu Yadav too for promoting his non-matric son as deputy CM. He talks to people in local Bhojpuri dialects.

No entry for BJP leaders in Sasaram

A 15-members delegation of BJP leaders was stopped from entering the communal riot-hit Sasaram town, headquarters of Rohtas district.

The delegation comprised two former deputy chief ministers Renu Devi and Tarkishore Prasad. They were stopped at Bikramganj on the district outskirts by police. The leaders were asked to return as their presence in the town could disturb peace.

Tarkishore Prasad said, “The BJP leaders wanted to meet the victims of the riots at Sasaram and restore a sense of relief among people. The administration did not allow them to even enter the district.”

The district magistrate extended a ban on internet services till Sunday. Flag marches by the para-military forces were conducted at 122 sensitive points in the town.

Listen to speeches: Nitish to officers

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took a dig at his officers at a government programme organised by the irrigation department at Muzaffarpur. Nitish said, “I have seen officers present in my meetings prefer to get engaged on their mobile sets while I speak.”

The CM told senior IAS officers, including chief secretary Amir Subhani and principal secretary Dipak Kumar, “They pretend to listen to my speech but are busy on their mobile sets.”

He advised the officers to promote achievements of different departments on social media through mobile sets.

Nitish regretted the national media was not giving coverage to development activities of state government. But, everything negative is being published in the media. Officers should counter anti-government propaganda in the national media through social media, which is more powerful in dissemination of information.

“The media are giving coverage to the activities of those who are not performing in Delhi, but ignoring our achievement. Even BIll Gates who visited Patna praised our performance in water conservation. Even UNO appreciated our work in Jal, Jeeva, Hariyali scheme, but national media ignored everything.”