Jan Suraaj Party chief and poll strategist Prashant Kishor accused the top leadership of Bharatiya Janata Party of threatening his party candidates to withdraw their nominations for the upcoming Bihar assembly polls. Daring the BJP, Kishor said they would uproot the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance from Bihar this election.
Alleging that three Jan Suraaj candidates withdrew their candidature following pressure from the BJP, Kishor told presspersons that their presence has threatened the BJP. "In the past four to five days, three declared Jan Suraaj candidates who filed their nominations were forced to withdraw their nominations," he charged.
Suraaj charged that Jan Suraaj 's candidates for Danapur, Brahampur, and Gopalganj seats withdrew their candidature owing to pressure from Union ministers Amit Shah and Dharmendra Pradhan. "Democracy is being murdered. There has been no such precedent in the country," he alleged. The Jan Suraaj chief urged the Election Commission to ensure the security of the candidates.
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Kishor alleged his party's candidate for the Danapur seat, Akhilesh Kumar alias Mutur Shah, was kept the entire day with senior BJP leaders, including the Union home minister, on the day of nomination filing. “People were told that he was held hostage by RJD goons, but he was actually sitting with the home minister of India. The Election Commission must take note of this. How can a home minister keep a candidate by his side to stop him from filing his papers?” the Indian Express reported, quoting Kishor.
Kishor also accused Union minister Pradhan of forcing his party candidates to resign. "The BJP is trying to replicate the Surat model, in which their candidate got elected unopposed, as all other nominees were coerced to pull out. The BJP does not realise that voters had punished it across the country for it, and it won just 240 seats, though it had bragged that the tally would be 400-plus in last year's Lok Sabha polls," Kishor added.
Though Jan Suraaj had announced candidates for all 243 seats in Bihar, three candidates withdrew from the election. The party will now contest the crucial election in 240 seats.
