Three of the four candidates named by the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), founded by political strategist Prashant Kishor, for the November 13 Assembly bypolls in Bihar have pending criminal cases against them. The party’s move has drawn criticism from various quarters as it has gone against Kishor’s “promise” to give tickets to candidates with a “clean image”.

The bypolls were necessitated in the Tarari, Ramgarh, Belaganj and Imamganj Assembly seats after their MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recent elections.

The JSP’s Belaganj candidate Mohammad Amjad, 55, faces five pending FIRs, lodged against him between 1995 and 2022, as per his election affidavit. In one of the cases, he faces charges of attempt to murder, breach of public peace, and criminal intimidation. Amjad, who has completed his education up to Class 10, had unsuccessfully contested the 2005 and 2010 Assembly polls. In 2010, he lost in Belaganj on a JD(U) ticket by just over 4,500 votes.

Notably, Amjad was named as a replacement candidate in Belaganj. The JSP had initially announced Mohammed Khilafat Hussain, an academic, as its candidate who Amjad had previously supported. But Amjad “had been under pressure from his supporters to contest polls”, Kishor said.

The Belaganj seat fell vacant after the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) Surendra Prasad Yadav was elected to the Lok Sabha from Jehanabad. Amjad will face a triangular contest against the RJD’s Vishwanath Kumar Singh and the ruling Janata Dal (United)’s Manorama Devi.

The JSP’s Imamganj nominee Jitendra Paswan, 47, faces two pending cases filed between 2022 and 2023. In one case, he faces the charge of cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property.

Paswan, who has studied up to Class 12, will face the Hindustan Awami Morcha (Secular)’s Deepa Manjhi, the daughter-in-law of party founder Jitan Ram Manjhi who vacated the Imamganj seat after winning the Lok Sabha election from Gaya and has since become a Union minister.

In Ramgarh, the JSP’s Sushil Kumar Singh has declared in his poll affidavit one pending case from 2019. He faces charges of attempt to murder and breach of public peace. The seat was vacated after the RJD’s Sudhakar Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha as the Buxar MP. The RJD has fielded Ajit Singh, son of party state president Jagdanand Singh and brother of Sudhakar, while the BJP has fielded Ashok Singh in the Ramgarh bypoll.

While a JSP leader contended that the cases faced by the party’s candidates “could be politically motivated”, he maintained that the law prevents “only convicted people from contesting the polls”.

JSP spokesperson Sadaf Iqbal told The Indian Express, “None of the three candidates have serious charges like murder. What JSP founder Prashant Kishor means by giving tickets to people with a clean image is that these candidates must not be bahubalis (strongmen) or ones facing charges of heinous crimes. We have scrutinised the background of all our candidates. Cases against them are politically motivated. Mohammed Amjad, our Belaganj candidate, still has a mud-and-tile house and enjoys a high reputation. Similarly, Imamganj candidate Jitendra Paswan and Ramgarh candidate Sushil Kumar Singh have politically motivated cases against them.”

The JSP’s Tarari candidate Kiran Singh, 41, has been an education activist who is not facing any criminal case. Though the party had initially named former Vice-Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen (retired) S K Singh as its Tarari nominee, the Election Commission later objected to his candidacy, saying he is not a voter in Bihar.

The Tarari bypoll, necessitated by CPI(ML)Liberation MLA Sudama Prasad winning the Lok Sabha poll from Arrah, will see Kiran Singh face the BJP’s Vishal Prashant, the son of former MLA Narendra Pandey, and the CPI(ML)L’s Raju Yadav.