Prashant Kishor's party fails poll debut, candidates lose all 4 seats in Bihar bypolls

Bypolls to the four Bihar seats, that the Jan Suraaj badly lost, were meant to be a litmus test for the party, aimed at assessing its standing in Bihar. 

In Short

• Prashant Kishor launched Jan Suraaj party in Bihar
• All Jan Suraaj candidates lost in Bihar bypolls with huge margin
• Candidates fielded in Imamganj, Belaganj, Ramgarh, Tarari

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor launched his party Jan Suraaj ahead of bypolls to four Assembly constituencies in Bihar, and fielded candidates on all four of them. However, his party's poll debut performance tanked as all candidates were defeated from their respective seats, and by a significant margin.

Jan Suraaj party had fielded Jitendra Paswan, Mohammad Amajad, Sushil Kumar Singh and Kiran Singh, from Imamganj, Belaganj, Ramgarh and Tarari constituencies, respectively.

When Prashant Kishor launched his party on October 2, he said that he would field candidates on all 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly polls in 2025. Bypolls to the four Bihar seats, that the Jan Suraaj badly lost, were meant to be a litmus test for the party, aimed at assessing its standing in Bihar.

BIHAR BYPOLL RESULTS

The candidates fielded by Jan Suraaj lost the Bihar bypolls with a huge margin, with none of them being in a close fight with the rivals. While the BJP won Ramgarh and Tarari, Belaganj and Imamganj were won by JDU and Hindustani Awam Morcha, respectively.

Prashant Kishor had fielded Mohammad Amjad as a candidate from Belaganj, who stood third and got 17,285 votes. From this seat, JDU candidate Manorama Devi won the election with 73,334 votes.

In Imamganj, Prashant Kishor had given a ticket to Jitendra Paswan, who also stood third. He got 37,103 votes. From this seat, Deepa Manjhi, daughter-in-law of Union Minister Jitendra Ram Manjhi, won the election and got 53,435 votes.

In Ramgarh, Jan Suraaj's Sushil Kumar Singh was in the fray, but came in fourth. He got 6,513 votes. BJP candidate Ashok Kumar Singh won this seat and got 62,257 votes.

In Tarari, Prashant Kishore had fielded Kiran Singh, but she came third, with 5,592 votes. BJP candidate Vishal Prashant, son of former MLA and strongman Sunil Pandey, won the election and got 78,564 votes.

PRASHANT KISHOR'S PARTY

Prashant Kishor, who has worked as an election strategist for many parties in the last 10 years, decided to start his own party.

He had been holding campaigns and touring Bihar to interact with people on the ground. During the last two years of interacting with the people, he decided that he should form a party and on October 2 this year, he launched the Jan Suraaj and decided to contest the Bihar bypolls.