Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor during Muslim Cell’s meetings, in Patna, on September 1, 2024.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Activist Prashant Kishor on Sunday (September 1, 2024) said his Jan Suraaj will field a significant number of Muslim candidates in the Bihar Assembly polls due next year.

The IPAC founder, however, rejected the charge that he was trying to “split” votes of the minority community and hit the RJD, the BJP’s principal opponent in the State.

“We tend to give tickets to at least 40 Muslims in elections to the 243-strong Assembly. The community will also have a fair share of representation in the organisation’s leadership,” Mr. Kishor told reporters in Patna.

He was speaking after a symposium on the theme “the participation of Muslims in politics” organised by Jan Suraaj which would become a full-fledged political party on October 2.

Mr. Kishor pointed out that in the current Assembly, there were “only 19 Muslim members, even though the community comprised about 20% of the State’s total population.

“So much for the secular credentials of RJD, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s JD(U) and the Congress,” said the former strategist who has, in the past, rendered his services to all these parties.

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He, however, bristled at the RJD’s allegation that his Muslim outreach was only aimed at splitting the vote and, indirectly, help the BJP.

“If that is the RJD’s fear, I challenge it to give tickets to an adequate number of Muslims. They claim to be ‘rehnuma’ (champions) of the community. They must walk the talk. I can promise that if they do so, Jan Suraaj will not field Muslims in seats where their candidate belongs to the community. We will field a Hindu,” said Mr. Kishor.