Former vice chief of army staff is Prashant Kishor's bypoll pick

Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party on Wednesday named former vice chief of army staff, Lieutenant General Krishna Singh, as its candidate for the bypoll to Tarari assembly seat in Bihar.

The announcement came at a press conference addressed by Kishor, a political strategist-turned-activist, and the party's working president Manoj Bharti, a retired diplomat-turned-politician, among others.

Kishor disclosed that the fledgeling party would name its candidates for three other seats, where bypolls are due next month, within a few days, even as he asserted that the candidature of Lt Gen Sinha, "the only vice chief of army staff from Bihar besides late S K Sinha", was a matter of pride for Tarari which had become "synonymous with illegal sand-mining and other mafia".

The bypoll has been necessitated for the seat falling in Bhojpur district following the election to Lok Sabha of Sudama Prasad, a CPI-ML leader whose party is a part of the opposition INDIA bloc.

Speaking on the occasion, Lt Gen Singh said he was "not happy" with the Agniveer scheme which, incidentally, had met with stiff opposition when it was rolled out a couple of years ago.

The former army vice chief was of the opinion that a four years' contract would come in the way of "regimentation, which denotes a jawans' devotion to the regiment in which he spends a lifetime of service to the nation".

"We should learn from our experience in Galwan where the Chinese troops had better technical knowhow but were done in for want of spirit (jazba)," said Singh, who had been living in the Delhi-NCR region since 2013, following retirement.

"My children are settled abroad and my wife is no more. I am giving up a comfortable life because of my love for Tarari, the place to which I belong. The respect I get there for having served in the army is something I never saw in Delhi or Noida," he added.

Replying to a query, Lt Gen Singh said, "I may not be a great fan of Agniveer but, still, I will never advise youngsters to not think of the army as a career choice. In four years, a jawan learns enough skills to build a life for oneself. Also, policies do change. In future, the government may amend the scheme on the lines of the Short Service Commission."