Despite Prashant Kishor's 'clean' pledge, 3 of his 4 picks are 'tainted'

PATNA: In sharp contrast to claims made by poll strategist Prashant Kishor to give a chance only to people with " clean image " in politics, three of his four candidates contesting bypolls on four assembly seats in the state face serious criminal charges including kidnapping, attempt to murder, extortion, theft, and assault, reports Manoj Chaurasia. This revelations came to light after the candidates, contesting elections on newly formed Jan Suraaj 's tickets, submitted their affidavits to Election Commission.

The Jan Suraaj candidates are contesting in byelections from all four seats in the state - Belaganj, Imamganj, Ramgarh, and Tarari.

What has surprised everyone is that 75% of the candidates, picked by the just-formed party, allegedly have a "tainted image," leaving the political experts baffled.

Of the three, the party's Imamganj candidate, Jitendra Paswan, faces serious criminal cases like kidnapping, cheating, theft, and assault, according to his self-attested poll affidavit filed before EC. Similarly, Belaganj candidate, Mohammad Amjad, revealed in his poll affidavit about criminal cases.

Jan Suraaj candidate from Ramgarh, Sushil Kushwaha, is no different from his other party colleagues. If his affidavit is any indication, the Ramgarh candidate faces criminal offences like attempt to murder.

"All our candidates have a 'clean image', and the cases were part of attempts to damage their reputation," Jan Suraaj's national spokesperson, Sadaf Iqbal claimed, adding that revelation of cases pending against them means they didn't hide the facts.