Political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor during an interview
Credit: PTI Photo
Patna: The Election Commission on Thursday dismissed Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor's charge that a former vice chief of army had been "stopped" from filing nomination for bypoll to Tarari assembly constituency in Bihar.
In a statement, the District Election Office, Bhojpur, said Kishor's allegation was "baseless and misleading", even though it admitted that absence of Lieutenant General Shri Krishna Singh's name in the state's electoral roll rendered the latter ineligible for contesting an assembly bypoll.
The statement pointed out that as per EC guidelines, any application for shifting of address should be submitted "10 days before the last date of filing nominations in that constituency".
However, the application for transfer of Singh's name from Noida, where he had been residing, to Tarari was moved only on October 18, which was less than 10 days before October 25, the last date of filing nomination papers in Tarari, the statement added.
Notably, on Wednesday Kishor had announced that in place of the former vice chief of army, local social activist Kiran Singh will be the candidate of Jan Suraaj from Tarari.
Kishor, whose party is contesting all four assembly segments in Bihar, where bypolls are scheduled, also announced that Belaganj candidate Khilafat Hussain, an elderly academician, has sought to excuse himself and, therefore, Mohd Amjad will be the Jan Suraaj candidate from the constituency.
Amjad and Jitendra Paswan, the candidate from Imamganj, filed their nomination papers at the Gaya collectorate on Thursday.
The candidates reached the collectorate in a procession led by Kishor, who hopes to make a mark in the bypolls despite alleging that the system was "pro-incumbents" which put a less-than-a-month-old party like his at a clear disadvantage.