Bihar and Jharkhand News
Patna, May 27 (IANS) Jan Suraaj convener Prashant Kishor has announced that his party will contest the upcoming Bankipur Assembly by-election, directly challenging the BJP in what has long been regarded as one of the party's strongest urban bastions in Bihar.
Addressing a public meeting in Sheohar, Prashant Kishor asserted that for the past four to five decades, a single political family associated with the BJP had dominated Bankipur politics, while parties such as the RJD and Congress had repeatedly failed to unseat them.
“This time Jan Suraaj intends to enter the BJP’s fortress and defeat them,” Kishor said.
He claimed that his party alone would offer a genuine and direct contest in the constituency.
The Bankipur Assembly constituency has historically been a stronghold of the Nitin Nabin family.
Before Nitin Nabin, his father Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha also maintained a significant political presence in the constituency.
Following his father’s death, Nitin Nabin entered active politics and subsequently won the Bankipur seat multiple times, further consolidating the BJP’s influence there.
In December 2025, Nitin Nabin was elevated as the BJP’s National Working President and later became the party’s National President.
Subsequently, in March 2026, he was elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar.
After assuming membership of the Upper House, he resigned from the Bankipur Assembly seat, making a by-election necessary.
The announcement by Jan Suraaj has added a new dimension to Bihar’s political landscape, particularly as the party seeks to establish itself as a serious alternative force in urban constituencies.
During the last Bihar Assembly elections, Jan Suraaj contested 238 of the 242 seats and reportedly secured nearly 16 lakh votes statewide, though it failed to win a single seat.
Political observers now view the Bankipur by-election as an important test of Jan Suraaj’s organisational strength and of Prashant Kishor’s strategy of positioning the party as a challenger to both the BJP-led NDA and the opposition Mahagathbandhan in Bihar politics.