‘Bankipur a BJP stronghold, but…’: Prashant Kishor confident of key Bihar contest

POll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor has said that his Jan Suraaj company (JSP) intends to repugn the Bankipur assemblage sit down in Patna. The sit is currently vacant after BJP leader Nitin Nabin was elected to the Rajya Sabha and was elevated to the post of the party's national president in January.“Bankipur is the seat of the BJP's national president. For the past 40 years, no party or leader has managed to defeat the BJP there…since a BJP member has become the CM for the first time, the by-election will effectively serve as a referendum on the promises made in November 2025," explaining the party’s stand, he told news agency ANI."The public will have the right to cast their vote regarding the promises made to them - whether it was the pledge to provide ₹2 lakh, the promise to halt migration from Bihar, or the commitment to improve the education system and employment opportunities. Therefore, Jan Suraaj believes we must contest the Bankipur election with full force…,” he added. He also spoke on NEET-UG paper leak issue and said that, “The problem of paper leaks is systemic, not just an isolated incident. As long as coaching institutes dominate the education sector, paper leaks will continue."Also read | Prashant Kishor to finally contest an election himself? Jan Suraaj Party targets Bankipur, via an ashramBankipur is a BJP fortress. Nabin, who first won the seat in a 2006 bypoll after his father's death, retained it for a fifth consecutive term last year, defeating RJD candidate Rekha Kumari by a margin of nearly 52,000 votes and securing 62.66% of the total vote share. The JSP had fielded Vandana Kumari, a 37-year-old debutant from the business community, who finished a distant third.Earlier when asked whether Prashant would be the candidate himself, Kishor offered a line he's used before, “It is a decision for the party to take.” This was the answer he gave ahead of the Bihar assembly elections in 2025, and he did not contest then. But the political context is now starkly different.Kishor is nonetheless bullish on Bankipur, and claimed that only the Jan Suraaj Party can defeat the BJP there."Our party believes we just need to field a strong candidate," he told reporters in Patna on Saturday, “The RJD and the Congress have been losing the seat by massive margins.”He saw the bypoll as a test for the new BJP-JD(U) regime under Samrat Choudhary who recently replaced Nitish Kumar as CM.In the 2025 elections in Bihar, the JSP contested 238 of 243 assembly seats and failed to win a single one. Its overall vote share was over 3%. In many segments, its candidates received fewer votes than NOTA, meaning None of the Above. Kishor had predicted the outcome in strictly binary terms, saying repeatedly that it would be either "arsh par ya farsh par", right at the top or flat on the floor.