With the October 2 launch date of the Jan Suraaj party, the poll consultant-turned-politician Prashant Kishor will be testing political waters in the upcoming by-polls to four Assembly seats in Bihar. Kishor had said that his organisation, Jan Suraaj, may contest the by-elections after getting a party symbol. He has also already announced plans to factor in caste, distribution tickets proportionate to the population of different castes and rotating the command of the party among various castes. Moreover, he is also recruiting sidelined politicians from different political parties. By-polls to the four Assembly seats, that of Ramgarh, Tarari, Imamganj and Belaganj, are due as sitting MLAs of the seats have been elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha election earlier this year. Of the four seats, Ramgarh and Belaganj were won by Rashtriya Janata Dal MLAs Sudhakar Singh and Surendra Yadav, respectively, in the previous Assembly election. But they vacated the seats after being elected as MPs from Buxar and Jehanabad seats respectively. Tarari was won by Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) candidate Sudama Prasad, who is now the MP from Karakat. NDA ally and Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular (HAM-S) founder Jitan Ram Manjhi, who was MLA from Imamganj seat, stepped down after his election from Gaya Lok Sabha seat. He is currently Union Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet. Dates for the by-elections, though, have not been announced yet.
