Patna: Prashant Kishor will finally make his electoral debut.
The election strategist-turned-politician on Sunday named himself the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) candidate for the high-profile Bankipur Assembly bypoll in Bihar.
There will be a great deal of attention on this bypoll on July 30 as Bankipur is one of BJP’s traditional strongholds.
“The people of Bankipur are the richest and the most educated in Bihar. Let them vote for the best. If they feel they can repose their trust in me, I urge them to vote for me… Even as the lone MLA of my party, I shall outweigh the remaining 242 ones in the assembly,” Kishor said at a press conference after Jan Suraaj state president Manoj Bharti made the formal announcement.
The Bankipur seat fell vacant after Nitin Nabin was elected to the Rajya Sabha and named BJP’s national president.
The saffron party is yet to announce its candidate for Bankipur. The name of heavyweight state leader Ajay Alok is doing the rounds, along with those of Neel Ratan Ghosh and Ajeet Kumar Lali.
Lalu Prasad Yadav’s son and Janata Janshakti Dal (JJD) chief Tej Pratap Yadav has fielded social activist Veena Manvi for the byelection.
Kishor, who founded the JSP two years ago, went all out in the 2025 Bihar Assembly polls against BJP, RJD and JD(U). The party contested 238 out of 243 seats but failed to win a single constituency, securing just over 3% of the state’s vote share.
Kishor, however, didn’t contest from any constituency, surprising the political fraternity.
Now, he has plunged into the vote war, having previously managed election campaigns of a number of major political parties over the past decade.
“The Bankipur assembly bypoll would be a referendum on the first year of the ruling NDA,” Prashant said recently.
“Only Jan Suraaj Party can defeat the BJP in Bankipur,” Kishor claimed.
#WATCH | Patna: When asked about his candidature for the Bankipur Assembly by-election in Bihar, Jan Suraaj, Chief Prashant Kishor says, “…We view this as the beginning of a new kind of politics in Bihar… It is not anyone’s stronghold; it is the stronghold of the people of… pic.twitter.com/suonAUdyVn
— ANI (@ANI) July 5, 2026
He has himself taken the responsibility to guide JSP to victory.
Besides Bankipur, bypolls on July 30 will be held in Datia (Madhya Pradesh) and Manjalpur (Gujarat).
The counting of votes for all three seats will be taken up on August 3, according to the Election Commission of India.
