On day 4 of fast unto death, Prashant Kishor seeks support of Rahul Gandhi, Tejashwi Yadav

Patna: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who has been on a fast unto death to press the demand for cancellation of a BPSC exam, on Sunday sought the support of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

Talking to reporters here on the fourth day of his 'Amran anshan', Kishor also said he was ready to "follow" these leaders and if they were averse to his presence, he was willing to "withdraw".

"I want to inform the people that this agitation is non-political one and not being carried under the banner of my party. Last night, the youngsters formed a 51-member forum called 'Yuva Satyagraha Samiti' (YSS) which will steer this movement of which Prashant Kishor is just a part. All are welcome to lend support be it Rahul Gandhi, who has 100 MPs and Tejashwi Yadav who has more than 70 MLAs", Kishor said.

He added, "These leaders are much bigger than us. They can get five lakh people to gather at the Gandhi Maidan…this is the time to do so. The future of the youth is at stake. We are faced with a brutal regime which has ordered lathi charge 87 times in just three years".

"Out of 51 members of the newly formed YSS, 42 decided to continue this fight last night. All members of the YSS are part of different political organisations. But all of them have now come under one umbrella to unitedly fight for the cause of youth and students. The YSS is totally a non-political forum. I am here to support them only….and this 'amran anshan' will continue. Use of water cannons and lathi charge on protesting BPSC aspirants in Patna on December 29 by the state police, was murder of democracy", he said.

Often accused of being a B-team of the BJP, Kishor said, "I don't think any BJP leader will have the courage to speak against the very government of which party is a part, but if any of them comes forward guided by conscience, he will be welcome. The state's youth often say that in national elections, they vote for PM Narendra Modi and nobody else. But the youth of Bihar have got nothing in return since Modi took over".

Citing the example of the agitation in Delhi against the controversial farm laws, Kishor remarked "The Modi government had to relent after several months. One day the Nitish Kumar government will also have to bow before the youth here".

The Jan Suraaj founder has been fast-unto-death since Thursday to press for the demand for cancellation of the integrated 70th combined (preliminary) competitive test conducted by the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) on December 13. However, BPSC had ordered the retest for a select group of candidates who had appeared in the December 13 exam, which was embroiled over allegations of question paper leak. The retest was held on Saturday at 22 centres here.

The re-exam took place at 22 centres in Patna. Out of a total of 12,012 candidates, around 8,111 aspirants had downloaded their admit cards. However, 5,943 students appeared for the retest on Saturday. The retest was held peacefully at all centres without report of any misconduct and malpractices, the BPSC said in a statement issued on Saturday.