Bihar polls: Gopalganj Independent candidate Anup Kumar Srivastava joins Jan Suraaj Party

Patna (Bihar) [India], October 24 (ANI): With the Bihar Assembly elections drawing closer, independent candidate Anup Kumar Srivastava from Gopalganj has officially joined the Jan Suraaj Party in the presence of party founder Prashant Kishor on Friday.
This development follows Jan Suraaj's candidate, Shashi Shekhar Sinha, withdrawing his nomination from the Gopalganj assembly constituency. Following Sinha's exit, the party has extended its support to Srivastava for the upcoming polls.
Earlier, the Jan Suraaj Party, led by Prashant Kishor, announced its second list of candidates for the upcoming Bihar polls, naming candidates for 65 seats.
The list includes candidates for 19 reserved seats (18 SC and 1 ST) and 46 general seats.
The party said that as per its commitment to provide representation to various sections in proportion to their population in the state, the second list has 14 candidates from the Extremely Backward Classes (EBCs), 10 candidates from Other Backward Classes (OBCs), 11 from the general category, and 14 from the minority community.
In line with the promise to field capable Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) candidates on general seats, a SC candidate has been nominated from the Harnaut assembly constituency.
The initial list of candidates, released on October 9, had names of 51 candidates for Bihar assembly election.
The 2025 Bihar elections see a contest between the NDA and the Mahagathbandhan. NDA includes the Bharatiya Janata Party, Janata Dal (United), Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) and Rashtriya Lok Morcha.
Mahagathbandhan, led by Rashtriya Janata Dal, includes Congress party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML) led by Deepankar Bhattacharya, the Communist Party of India (CPI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), and Mukesh Sahani's Vikasheel Insaan Party (VIP).
Additionally, Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj has staked claims to all 243 seats in the state.
Bihar will go to the polls on November 6 and November 11 and votes will be counted on November 14. (ANI)