Prashant Kishor to contest Bankipur bypoll in Bihar

Prashant Kishor, the founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, announced on Sunday that he will contest the upcoming Bankipur assembly bypoll in Bihar, marking his debut as a candidate in electoral politics. He framed the election as a referendum on the popularity of the state's BJP-led government under Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary.

The bypoll was necessitated after the seat's previous occupant, BJP state president Nitin Nabin, resigned following his election to the Rajya Sabha. Addressing a press conference in Patna, Kishor said the decision to contest was formally approved by his party's core committee shortly after the Election Commission announced the schedule last week.

Kishor, a former political strategist, argued that Choudhary became chief minister without a direct public mandate, as the National Democratic Alliance fought the previous year's assembly election with JDU leader Nitish Kumar as its declared chief ministerial face before Kumar stepped down approximately two months ago. "The upcoming bypoll is going to be a referendum on the working of the two-month-old government of Samrat Choudhary," Kishor said. He added that if the BJP wins, he would concede it continues to...