Prashant Kishor’s ‘Jan Suraj Party’ has also made its place in the Bihar Legislative Council (Upper House). Suresh Prasad Rai has become the first MLC of Jansuraj by winning the election of Darbhanga Teachers’ Constituency. The Jan Suraj candidate has won the election from Darbhanga Teachers’ Constituency. Suresh Prasad Rai defeated Congress veteran and sitting MLC Madan Mohan Jha by 324 votes
Suresh Prasad Rai took the lead in the counting of first-preference votes from the beginning and maintained it till the end. Madan Mohan Jha left the counting center before the counting of votes was completed.
Jan Suraj got the benefit of the triangular contest
The Congress, Lalu Yadav’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and CPM were all in the fray in this constituency. Jan Suraj got the benefit of this triangular match. After the Bihar Legislative Assembly, the account of the Jan Suraj Party has now been opened in the Bihar Legislative Council (Upper House). Jan Suraj had won an assembly seat in the recently held bypolls. Political strategist-turned-MLA Prashant Kishor represents Bankipur in the state assembly.
RJD and CPM spoiled Congress’s game
During the Legislative Council elections, the Congress and the RJD were once again face-to-face. Both the parties fielded their candidates in Patna Teacher, Patna Graduate, Darbhanga Teacher, Darbhanga Graduate and Kosi Graduate constituencies. While the RJD had no seats, the Congress had one seat in the Darbhanga teachers’ constituency. The RJD had initially not fielded any candidate for this seat, but later when the Congress decided to field its candidates in all the five constituencies, the RJD made Kumar Raut its candidate.
Meanwhile, the CPM had also declared Ramdev Rai as its candidate. Jan Suraj Rai got 2,574 votes, Congress leader Madan Mohan Jha got 2,187 votes and Ramdev Rai got 1,498 votes. RJD candidate Kumar Raut got 126 votes. Madan Mohan Jha had won the seat in the last two elections. He has also been the state president of the Congress and has also been a minister in the Grand Alliance government.
Who is Dr. Suresh Prasad Rai?
Dr. Suresh Prasad Rai has been a member of the BJP for a long time. After retiring from the post of government teacher, he was fully engaged in politics and organization work. He has also served as the state-level coordinator of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Teachers Cell. In the last election, he contested on a BJP ticket from the same seat, but lost to Madan Mohan Jha of the Congress and finished second. This time, angered by ticket distribution, he left the BJP just before the elections and joined the Jan Suraj Party and won.
The Congress did not win a single seat in the MLC elections in Bihar. In Patna Teachers’ constituency, RJD’s Dr Sanjeev Kumar defeated BJP’s Naval Kishore by 1,057 votes. With this defeat, the BJP’s nearly 30-year-old dominance in the Patna Teachers’ seat ended. BJP’s Narendra Prasad Singh won from Tirhut Teachers’ constituency. He defeated his nearest rival Independent candidate Bhushan Kumar Jha by a margin of 594 votes. BJP rebel and Independent candidate Rahul Raj won from Saran Teachers’ constituency after counting of second preference votes.
