PATNA: Jan Suraaj on Monday announced its second list of candidates for 65 seats for Bihar assembly elections but kept up the suspense over its choice for the Raghopur seat, a bastion of Lalu Prasad’s family. Former deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav won the seat in 2015 and 2020 polls. Tejashwi is scheduled to file his nomination from Raghopur on October 15.Tejashwi’s parents and former Bihar CMs, Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi, have also won Raghopur seat in the past. Addressing a press conference on Monday, Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor did not announce any candidate for Raghopur. During its tour on October 11, he had talked about naming a nominee soon for the prestigious seat.Kishor said with the release of names of 65 candidates in the second list, Jan Suraaj has so far named candidates for 116 of the state’s total 243 seats. “In the first list, we announced candidates for 51 seats. Candidates for the remaining seats will be announced later,” he said.Kishor said that among the candidates announced so far, 31 belonged to extremely weaker sections, 21 to other backward classes, and 21 are Muslims. From Chainpur, Jan Suraaj has fielded Hemant Choubey, son of late Lalmuni Choubey, a BJP veteran.
