Will contest LS election, says Bihar’s Manish Kashyap who faces fake video cases
Manish Kashyap contested and lost the 2020 Bihar assembly election from the Chanpatia assembly segment in Paschim Champaran
BETTIAH: YouTuber Manish Kashyap, who spent nine months in prison on charges of circulating fabricated videos of Bihari migrant workers being attacked in Tamil Nadu, is planning to contest the Lok Sabha elections as an Independent candidate from the Paschim Champaran seat.
Kashyap, who described himself as a supporter of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said he wanted to free the constituency from the spell of ‘dynastic politics’ that has gripped it, an attack on senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sanjay Jaiswal who has thrice represented the seat in Lok Sabha. Sanjay Jaiswal has won the three elections in 2009, 2014 and 2019. His father, Madan Prasad Jaiswal, was thrice elected to the erstwhile Bettiah seat in 1996, 1998 and 1999. The seat was abolished due to delimitation in 2008.
Kashyap claimed he did not foresee any challenge because there was a strong anti-incumbency against Jaiswal.
To be sure, Kashyap contested the 2020 Bihar assembly election from the Chanpatia assembly segment. The BJP, which has held the Chanpatia since 2000, retained the seat with Umakant Singh securing 83,828 votes. Abhishek Ranjan of the Congress was the runner-up with , followed by the Congress with 70,359 votes. Kashyap was a distant third with 9,239 votes
Kashyap said he decided to throw his hat into the ring to rescue Pashchim Champaran from ‘dynastic politics’ and light up the faces of people who are suffering due to non-performance of the previous MPs.
”I, therefore, have decided to file my nomination paper for Pashchim Champaran Lok Sabha seat on April 30,” said Kashyap,
BJP’s West Champaran district chief Rupak Shrivastava brushed aside Kashyap’s claims and allegations, describing him as a fly-by-night politician.
Shrivastava asked how many time Kashyap turned up in Chanpatia assembly after his defeat. “Unlike Kashyap who is only a fly-by-night politician, Sanjayji has worked as primary member for 20 years before the party elevated him. Take it from me, after the elections Manish Kashyap will flee from the scene as eels in the mud,” said Shrivastava.
Kashyap hit national headlines after the Tamil Nadu government decided to act against him for allegedly spreading fabricated videos claiming migrant workers from Bihar had been attacked in Tamil Nadu.
In May last year, the Supreme Court declined his plea against the Tamil Nadu government detaining him under the National Security Act, observing that circulating unverified information to create disquiet in stable states will not be tolerated.
Kashyap approached the Supreme Court to club all first information reports (FIR) against him and preferred having the cases transferred to Patna where he resides. The Bihar government also appeared before the court and submitted that the petitioner was a habitual offender who is facing eight criminal cases in the state.
The bench told the two state governments that it was interested to transfer all FIRs to be probed in one place. “The drift of all his posts is the same that Bihar migrants are being killed in Tamil Nadu. We are not going to quash the prosecution. Let all cases be probed by one agency,” the bench noted.
Kashyap was finally released on bail from the Beur Central Jail on December 23, 2023 after the Patna high court granted him bail.