Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor on Monday took the oath as a Bihar legislator on Monday following his stunning victory in the Bankipur bypoll on August 3.
Prashant Kishor, who was administered the oath by assembly speaker Prem Kumar in his office, said it was “a big responsibility” for him to work on the lines of “hundreds of MLAs who dedicated the valuable years of their lives to the betterment of society and the state”.
The party’s prolonged dominance of the seat rendered Kishor’s triumph a significant political upset. Kishor’s party contested 238 of Bihar’s 243 assembly seats in the 2025 Bihar elections but failed to win a single constituency. Kishor defeated BJP’s Neeraj Kumar by over 19,000 votes, while the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate finished a distant third. A prestigious urban seat in Patna long regarded as an impregnable BJP fortress, Bankipur had remained with the party since 1995. The constituency has been represented by BJP president Nitin Nabin five times, while his late father, Navin Kishore Prasad Sinha, had won the seat, then known as Patna West, three times (1995 and both the February and October 2005 state elections).
Because bankipur has long been viewed as a BJP bastion, earlier reporting noted: The win carried particular weight.
“It is a matter of pride for me to be a member of the state assembly where leaders such as Krishna Sinha, Karpoori Thakur, Anugrah Narayan Sinha, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Kedar Pandey, Ram Vilas Paswan, and Sushil Kumar Modi have served,” the 49-year-old election strategist-turned politician said.
Kishor, however, threw in his hat when the Bankipur seat fell vacant earlier this year when BJP national president Nitin Nabin vacated it after his election to the Rajya Sabha. Earlier reporting noted: The bypoll was necessitated after BJP president Nitin Nabin vacated the seat following his elevation to the Rajya Sabha. Earlier reporting noted: Jan Suraaj party founder Prashant Kishor took oath as Bankipur MLA at the Bihar Legislative Assembly in the presence of Speaker Prem Kumar on Monday.
