Patna, 9 Oct

Jan Suraaj Party on Thursday released its first list of 51 candidates for the Bihar Assembly elections, but did not confirm whether its founder Prashant Kishor will contest the polls.

Addressing a press conference here, party national president Udai Singh said Kishor is likely to hit the campaign trail on 11 October from Raghopur, the constituency of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav.

"We will soon release a list of candidates for other seats. If you find Kishor Ji's name on the list, then he will be contesting. It's quite clear. Kishor Ji will launch the party's election campaign from Raghopur on October 11", Singh said.

Of the 51 candidates named, 11 belong to backward classes, 17 to extremely backward classes, nine are from minority communities and the rest from the general category, he added.

Prominent names on the list include popular Bhojpuri singer Ritesh Ranjan Pandey from Kargahar, and Pritti Kinnar from the third gender community from Bhorey seat in Gopalganj.

Other candidates include Y V Giri (Manjhi), Dr Amit Kumar Das (Muzaffarpur), Dr Shashi Shekhar Sinha (Gopalganj), Drig Narain Nishad (Valmiki Nagar), Sunil Kumar (Lauriya), Awadhesh Ram (Harsidhi–SC), Dr Lal Bbau Prasad (Dhaka), Usha Kiran (Sursand), Vijay Kumar Sah (Runnisaidpur), Mhd Parvej Alam (Benipatti), Ram Parvesh Kumar Yadav (Nirmali), Raghib Bablu (Sikti), Abu Affan Farooque (Kochadhaman), Afroz Alam (Amour), Md Shahnawaz Alam (Baisi), Kunal Nishad (Pranpur) and Kishor Kumar (Saharsa), among others.