New Delhi: The Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) will contest the Bankipur assembly bypoll in Bihar, its national president Uday Singh said Wednesday, highlighting that party workers and supporters want JSP founder Prashant Kishor to contest.
Speaking to ThePrint, Singh said the party is chalking out a roadmap for contesting the bypoll.
The seat fell vacant after Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Nitin Nabin was elected to Rajya Sabha following his elevation to the post of the party’s national president in January.
The Election Commission is yet to announce the schedule for the bypoll.
“We have decided that Bankipur majbooti se ladenge. I have been saying this from day one that wherever Prashant Kishor fights from, obviously he’s the strongest candidate we have. It is traditionally considered a BJP seat, and we want to put our best,” Uday Singh told ThePrint on Wednesday.
Kishor launched his Jan Suraaj Party on 2 October 2024 after a two-year pan-Bihar march—called the Jan Suraaj Padyatra. He launched the padyatra after exiting a career in political consulting in 2021, and covered thousands of villages across the state.
In the assembly elections last year, Kishor’s party fielded candidates in 238 of the 243 seats, but he did not contest the poll. The party drew a blank, getting just 3.4 percent vote share.
On the Bankipur bypoll, Kishor has maintained that a decision will be taken by the party.
The Bankipur constituency assumes significance as the high-profile seat is considered a BJP stronghold. Nabin won it last year defeating Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Rekha Kumari by a margin of over 51,000 votes.
Nabin’s father, Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, also won the seat multiple times. Nitin Nabin first won the seat in a 2006 by-election after his father’s death and has been winning the seat since then.
Singh said Kishore is the JSP’s flagbearer and party members have been suggesting his name to contest the bypoll. He said Bankipur is the top priority issue for the party right now and a final decision on the JSP candidate will be taken soon.
“Naturally, whenever this issue comes up for discussion during our meetings the first reaction of party workers and supporters is that ‘PK ladenge toh sabse achchha hoga’ (PK fighting would be the best thing). But at the same time, we have to make a decision depending on the local circumstances of the constituency,” Uday Singh said.
What PK said on fighting polls last year
Following the 2025 debacle, the JSP dissolved all its organisational units from the panchayat-level upwards.
Last November, addressing his first press conference after the Bihar poll results, Kishor responded to questions about not contesting the elections.
“Imran Khan started his party in Pakistan 25 years ago, contested from seven seats and lost all—so contesting elections is subjective. People can debate whether it would have been beneficial had I contested the election or not,” Kishor had said.
PK had maintained all along that his party would either be on “arsh” or “farsh”—either win 150 seats or draw a blank.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
