RJD's biggest worry is division of Muslim votes, Prashant Kishor offers THIS solution

Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor, who is set to contest all 243 assembly seats, on Sunday challenged RJD's Tejashwi Yadav to field 40 Muslim candidates in the upcoming Bihar assembly election if he really believed in rights based on a community's numbers. He said there are 40 seats in the state where Muslim candidates should be fielded, but suggested that RJD takes their votes but does not give them tickets.  

The RJD fears that if Kishor fields Muslim candidates in minority-dominated areas then the Muslim votes will be divided, favoring the NDA. However, Kishor said that his vote party won't cut Muslim votes only if RJD fields Muslim candidates in 40 sets.  The Jan Suraaj won't field Muslim candidates in these 40 seats if RJD does so, Kishor said.  

"If rights are to be given based on the population, then Muslims should contest elections on at least 40 Vidhan Sabha seats. The people of RJD are claiming to be the well-wishers of Muslims. I challenged them that if the Muslim votes would be divided if the Jan Suraaj Party contested the elections, then wherever you would launch a Muslim candidate, we would launch a Hindu candidate there," the political strategist-turned-politician said. 

Kishor asked the RJD to stop snatching Muslims' rights and give them tickets as per the population. 

When asked whether it would be a trilateral contest, he said the main contest in the assembly election would be between Jan Suraaj and the NDA. According to the Lok Sabha numbers, he said, the NDA is ahead in 176 of 243 assembly seats in Bihar. Kishor exuded confidence that the next government will be formed by Jan Suraaj. 

The RJD today held an agitation, demanding the inclusion of the findings of the caste survey, conducted in 2023, in under Schedule 9 of the Constitution.

Speaking at the event, RJD MP Sanjay Yadav said, "We are challenging the BJP to include Bihar's 65% reservation increase in the Ninth Schedule of the Constitution or clearly say that they cannot include it in the ninth schedule. RJD demands that the caste census should be conducted. I appeal to the workers of RJD to visit every village and explain to everyone the benefits of caste census."

Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said that all the big socialist leaders, from time to time, talked about castes. "The great men who were our leaders, all talked about reservation and talked about those sections which are at the bottom of the society, whether Dalit, tribal or backward. Even today, you will see that discrimination happens in society. Today, when we talk of caste census, people say that we are trying to divide society. It should be found out what is the condition of people from different castes. Poverty is our enemy and we should work to remove it," he added. 

Earlier, Prashant Kishor suggested that caste census alone won't eradicate poverty. Targeting Rahul Gandhi, who is leading the caste census demand, Kishor said that a caste census will only help understand the number of a section but it won't eradicate poverty. If caste census is that useful, he added, then Congress should conduct it whereever it is in power and finish the poverty.  

"Rahul Gandhi should tell where was his wisdom for 60 years. For the last 60 years, your party was in power. You should have conducted the caste census and eradicated poverty. If we believe that now you have got this wisdom, you should at least conduct caste census in states - Karnataka, Telangana, and Himachal - where you are in power and remove the poverty," Kishor said while speaking to reporters.