Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj announces first list of 51 candidates for Bihar polls
Patna: The Jan Suraaj Party, led by political strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor, on Thursday announced its first list of 51 candidates for the upcoming two-phase Bihar Assembly election scheduled for next month.
The list includes a diverse mix of professionals — a celebrated mathematician, retired bureaucrats, former police officers, doctors, and lawyers marking the party’s attempt to present itself as a clean and credible alternative in Bihar’s political landscape.
According to the list, 16 per cent of the candidates are Muslims and 17 per cent belong to extremely backward communities (EBCs). Kishor, who has often criticised corruption in mainstream politics, has said that integrity and public service record were the key criteria for shortlisting candidates.
One of the most notable names on the list is Prof. K.C. Sinha, Jan Suraaj’s candidate from Kumhrar. A renowned mathematician and former Vice-Chancellor of Patna University, Prof. Sinha is best known for authoring school textbooks that have been followed for decades across Bihar and several other states.
From Manjhi, the party has fielded Y.B. Giri, a Senior Advocate at the Patna High Court. Giri has served as Additional Advocate General of Bihar and Additional Solicitor General of India for central government cases in the same court.
Another key candidate, Dr. Amit Kumar Das, will contest from Muzaffarpur. An alumnus of Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Dr. Das is known for his efforts to expand basic healthcare access in rural areas. Along with his wife, who is also a doctor, he runs a hospital in Muzaffarpur.
While the list introduces several new faces, it notably does not include Prashant Kishor’s own name, leaving uncertainty over whether he will enter the electoral fray himself. Kishor has previously indicated interest in contesting either from Raghopur, the RJD stronghold represented by Tejashwi Yadav, or from Kargahar, his home constituency.
Interestingly, the first list names Ritesh Ranjan (Pandey) as the Jan Suraaj candidate from Kargahar, fuelling speculation that Kishor may indeed choose to contest from Raghopur.
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ASHA workers threaten indefinite strike from Feb 27 over rationalisation order, pending demands
Bengaluru: ASHA workers in Karnataka have warned of launching an indefinite strike from February 27, protesting a health department order to rationalise the workforce and alleging that long-pending demands have not been addressed.
The Karnataka State Joint ASHA Workers’ Association criticised the department’s decision to increase the population assigned to each ASHA worker, arguing that it violates existing norms and would lead to large-scale job losses. According to current norms, one ASHA worker is assigned for every 1,000 individuals. Under the current rationalisation plan, the allotted population in rural regions has been increased to up to 2,000, while in metropolitan areas with populations more than 50,000, the number has been raised from 1,000 to a minimum of 2,500 and a maximum of 3,000.
Deccan Herald quoted D Nagalakshmi, state secretary of the ASHA Union affiliated to AITUC, as saying the department had conveyed that an honorarium of ₹10,000 could not be ensured unless the population coverage per worker was increased. She alleged that workers were effectively being asked to accept higher workloads while excess ASHAs would be removed. “This would render nearly 7,000 to 8,000 ASHA workers jobless, and such a move is being carried out only in Karnataka,” she said.
At present, the state government pays ASHA workers a monthly honorarium of ₹5,000, while the Centre provides performance-based incentives. Workers said accessing these incentives has become difficult as data must be entered on the ASHA portal by primary health community officers, but vacancies in these posts have not been filled.
The workers have also submitted a set of pre-Budget demands, seeking an increase in the combined state and central incentives to ₹15,000 and enhancement of the state honorarium to ₹ 8,000, in line with promises made in the Congress election manifesto. Other demands include a lump-sum retirement benefit on the lines of West Bengal, creation of a corpus fund to meet treatment expenses of ASHA workers suffering from serious illnesses with reimbursement provisions, and payment of a fixed monthly honorarium for up to three months during recovery from severe illness.
ASHA workers had staged an indefinite protest in January over similar issues. On the fourth day of the agitation, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah intervened and assured the workers that their demands would be met.
