Bihar Polls: Prashant Kishor Alleges 3 Candidates Of His Party Withdrew Under BJP’s ‘Pressure’ | Elections News

Last Updated:October 21, 2025, 17:30 IST

Prashant Kishor accused BJP of intimidating Jan Suraaj Party candidates to withdraw nominations in Bihar Polls 2025.

Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor addressed a press conference on Tuesday. (PTI)

Bihar Polls 2025: Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor on Tuesday accused the BJP of “intimidating” his party’s candidates and forcing them to withdraw their nominations from key constituencies in Bihar.

While addressing a press conference on Tuesday, the poll strategist-turned-politician said that three candidates of his Jan Suraaj Party in the Bihar elections withdrew their nominations under “pressure” from the BJP. He said that the BJP was using pressure tactics because it feared losing ground in the upcoming assembly polls, news agency PTI reported.

Directly naming Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Kishor said that they kept a candidate with him for one full day so that he could not file his nomination.

He claimed that in Danapur, the BJP detained Jan Suraaj candidate Mutur Shah and prevented him from filing his nomination. According to him, he was allegedly kept the entire day with senior BJP leaders, including the Home Minister and the state election in-charge.

“Earlier, there was a common notion that whoever wins the election, the BJP will form the government. The horse trading practice is not hidden from anyone…how lawmakers are whisked away to resorts and hotels. But now, the top BJP leadership is involved in holding the people’s choice candidates of JSP, with no past baggage and a clean image, hostage,” he said.

“If the home minister forces someone to be with him, what can that person do? Where’s the Election Commission? Two central ministers are surrounding Jan Suraaj candidate…from here, we will go to the Election Commission to file an official complaint,” he added.

Kishor said the NDA does not fear Mahagathbandhan because they know the Opposition’s candidates include “bahubalis and sand mafia”. “They will tell the people that they should vote for them to prevent the return of ‘jungle raj’. But they fear good people, doctors, traders, educationists and social workers,” he said.

“Democracy is being murdered. There has been no such precedent in the country,” he alleged, urging the Election Commission to ensure the security of the candidates.

“The BJP is trying to replicate the Surat model, in which their candidate got elected unopposed, as all other nominees were coerced to pull out. The BJP does not realise that voters had punished it across the country for it, and it won just 240 seats, though it had bragged that the tally would be 400-plus in last year’s Lok Sabha polls,” he added.

The candidates who withdrew from the race are: Mutur Shah from Danapur, Satya Prakash Tiwari from Brahampur, and Shashi Shekhar Sinha from Gopalganj.

However, there was no immediate response from the NDA and the BJP.

Kishor’s party had announced candidates for all 243 seats in Bihar. With the withdrawal of three candidates from the race, it will now fight on 240 seats as the last date for filing of nominations has already passed.

The Bihar assembly elections will be held on November 6 and 11. The counting of votes is scheduled for November 14.

(With inputs from agencies)

Shobhit Gupta

Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben…Read More

Shobhit Gupta is a sub-editor at News18.com and covers India and International news. He is interested in day to day political affairs in India and geopolitics. He earned his BA Journalism (Hons) degree from Ben… Read More

Read More