Bhojpuri star Ritesh quits Jan Suraaj Party

Patna: Bhojpuristar Ritesh Pandey on Monday quit the Jan Suraaj Party, barely two months after making an unsuccessful electoral debut from the home turf of the fledgling outfit’s founder Prashant Kishor.

The announcement was made by Ritesh on social media, citing his inability to carry on with his “work”, which earned him “so much love and affection” from the people, despite being “born in a family of humble farmers”.

Ritesh had fought the Bihar assembly polls from Kargahar, which had been identified as Kishor as one of the two seats, the other being RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav’s pocket borough Raghopur, from where he would have liked to contest himself.

However, the 47-year-old former political strategist chose not to contest the polls, claiming that his party wanted him to focus on organisation and campaign.

Ritesh had joined the Jan Suraaj Party in July 2025. He finished fourth in the seat and ended up forfeiting his deposit.

In his post on X, however, Ritesh made it clear that he felt no pangs of regret about his political career not taking off and that he was giving up the membership of the party since it was “not possible to carry on with my work while remaining a member of any political outfit”.

The party appeared to be heading for another setback with its senior leader RCP Singh singing pagans to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Both Singh and Kumar had turned up at a function here on Sunday, organised by the Patel (Kurmi) community to which they belong, and though they did not exchange words, the bureaucrat-turned-politician fueled speculations while replying to queries from journalists.