Jan Suraaj Party announces five candidates for upcoming Bihar MLC polls

Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor on Sunday (September 20, 2026) announced candidates for five constituencies of the Bihar Legislative Council, where elections are likely to be announced soon.

Elections are to be held for a total of eight constituencies — four graduates’ and teachers’ seats each — terms of which expire in November.

Addressing a press conference, Mr. Kishor declared the names of five candidates, including Afaq Ahmed, who will seek re-election from Saran teachers’ constituency, which he had won six years ago with the support of the former poll strategist, who was then yet to float his party. Mr. Kishor said the names of candidates of three other seats will be announced within the next three-four days.

Mr.. Kishor, the MLA of Bankipur Assembly seat, said JSP would seek to bring together various teachers’ organisations and form a joint struggle committee to pursue their demands.

He said the party would campaign for three key demands — implementation of the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission for teachers, bringing educators from aided institutions into the regular teachers’ category, and setting norms for assigning non-academic duties to teachers.

Mr. Kishor said these would be treated as demands of Jan Suraaj and claimed that the party would work with teachers to pressurise the government to fulfill these before the next Lok Sabha elections.

Addressing graduate constituency voters, Mr. Kishor also promised that if JSP candidates win, 10,000 jobs would be facilitated for unemployed graduates in each graduate constituency, similar to a job-related promise he had made to educated unemployed voters in his Bankipur constituency.

Lawyer and academician-turned-politician Divya Jyoti, who joined the party last week, was fielded from Patna teachers’ constituency, which is currently being held by JD(U) chief spokesperson Neeraj Kumar.

The party has also fielded S.P. Rai from Darbhanga teachers’ constituency, Ravindra Yadav from Darbhanga graduates’ seat, Rajnish Ranjan from Kosi graduates’ constituency, he said.

This election, separate from the Bihar Assembly polls, will cover four graduates’ and four teachers’ constituencies across around 30 districts. JSP had earlier said it would contest all eight seats, as part of its organisational expansion strategy.

In the MLC polls, candidates’ local influence, standing among graduate and teacher voters, and the strength of party organisations are expected to be key factors.