Last Updated:
Kishor, whose party failed to secure a single seat in the 2025 Bihar elections, appeared confident of besting the BJP in the Bankipur assembly bypoll.
Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor (PTI)
Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor has announced that his political outfit will contest the bypoll for the Assembly seat vacated by BJP national president Nitin Nabin after the latter’s election to the Rajya Sabha.
Kishor, whose party failed to secure a single seat in the 2025 Bihar elections, appeared confident of besting the BJP in the Bankipur assembly bypoll. He claimed the bypoll would be a “referendum on the first year of the ruling NDA” after its Assembly poll win.
“The Jan Suraaj Party has decided, in principle, to contest the bypoll to the Bankipur seat. It will be held by the time the NDA would have completed seven to eight months in power. So, the bypoll would be a referendum on the first year of the government,” said Kishor on Saturday.
Who Won In Bankipur?
Notably, Bankipur has been a BJP stronghold for decades and Nabin, who made his debut from the seat in 2006 in a bypoll necessitated by his father Nabin Kishor Prasad Sinha’s death, retained the seat for a fifth consecutive term in assembly polls held in November last year.
Nabin, who became the BJP president in January this year, defeated RJD’s Rekha Kumari by a margin of 50,000 votes, while Jan Suraaj’s Vandana Kumari came third with only 7,000 votes. He gave the seat last month after getting elected to the Rajya Sabha, necessitating a bypoll within six months.
However, Kishor said, “Only the Jan Suraaj Party can defeat the BJP in Bankipur. The RJD and the Congress have been losing the seat by massive margins. Our party believes we just need to field a strong candidate”.
However, the former political strategist declined to reveal whether he would contest the seat himself, saying it is a decision for the party to take. “I did not contest the assembly polls because the party felt I should concentrate on organisational work. I shall continue to abide by the party’s collective decision,” he added.
Kishor also dismissed rumours of a rift with Uday Singh, the Jan Suraaj Party’s national president, whose house he recently vacated to shift to an ashram on the outskirts of Patna and who has since announced a “one-year break from active politics”.
“Uday Singh is like a brother to me, besides being a senior party colleague. He continues to be our national president. We respect his wish to take a break for a year,” he said.
(with inputs from PTI)
Read More
