Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor is contesting his first election. Counting of votes for the Bankipur assembly by-election in Patna began on Monday, August 3, 2026. As of now, Kishor’s lead has widened to 14,953 votes over Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha after 25 rounds of counting, with 50,976 votes to Sinha’s 36,023. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Rekha Kumari remains in third place with 11,515 votes. Counting is still underway.The Bankipur seat fell vacant after five-time BJP Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Nitin Nabin resigned following his election to the Rajya Sabha and his appointment as BJP national president in December 2025. The BJP has held the seat, earlier known as Patna West, since 1995. Polling took place on July 30, 2026, recording a turnout of about 34 percent, lower than the November 2025 assembly election.Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party contested 238 of Bihar’s 243 assembly seats in the November 2025 state election but did not win a single one. Its vote share stood at about 2 percent, and most of its candidates lost their security deposits. Kishor did not contest that election himself. The Bankipur by-election marks his first personal entry into electoral politics after more than a decade as a political strategist.

Early life and schooling

Kishor was born on March 20, 1977, in Konar village, Rohtas district, Bihar. His father, Shrikant Pandey, was a government doctor, and his mother, Sushila Pandey, was a homemaker. The family later moved to Buxar in Bihar, where Kishor completed his secondary education.

Higher education

According to the affidavit Kishor filed with his nomination papers for the Bankipur by-election on July 13, 2026, his highest educational qualification is a Master of Healthcare Management (MHA) from the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI) in Hyderabad, completed between 2001 and 2003. The programme was developed in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University in the United States and Hinduja Hospital. Before that, Kishor completed a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) from the University of Lucknow in 1999. The affidavit also lists a French-language course completed at the CAVILAM centre of Clermont Ferrand University in France in 2010.The affidavit does not list an engineering degree or a Master of Business Administration (MBA), despite earlier, widely circulated claims that Kishor held an engineering qualification from Hyderabad.

Public health career

After his studies, Kishor worked in public health programmes funded by the United Nations (UN) for eight years, until 2011. He served as head of social policy and planning at the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Chad, where he headed a UN aid mission. During this period, he prepared a paper on economic prosperity and malnutrition in India. The paper was sent to then prime minister Manmohan Singh and drew the attention of Narendra Modi, then chief minister of Gujarat, who invited Kishor for a meeting.

Entry into political strategy

Kishor began working with the BJP in 2011, on an unpaid basis and without holding any official position in the party or the Gujarat government. He worked as a strategist for the BJP’s campaigns in the 2012 Gujarat assembly election and the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In 2013, he co-founded Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), a campaign organisation, ahead of the 2014 general election. Kishor and his team are credited with campaigns including Chai Pe Charcha, 3D rallies and Run for Unity during the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign.

Bihar, JD(U) and other state campaigns

In 2015, Kishor worked for the Nitish Kumar-led alliance in the Bihar assembly election. Members of CAG regrouped as the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) for this campaign. After Kumar’s win, Kishor was appointed his advisor for planning and programme implementation. On September 16, 2018, Kishor joined the Janata Dal (United), known as JD(U), as vice-president. He left the post on January 29, 2020.Kishor also worked with the Indian National Congress, commonly called Congress, for the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly election, which the party lost, and for Amarinder Singh’s Congress campaign in the 2017 Punjab assembly election, which it won. He went on to work with Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh election, with Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in the 2020 Delhi election, and with Mamata Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) and M.K. Stalin’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) in the 2021 West Bengal and Tamil Nadu elections respectively.

Exit from consultancy and formation of Jan Suraaj

On May 2, 2021, Kishor told reporters he was quitting election strategy work. A year later, in May 2022, he announced plans to form a political organisation, describing it as a move toward “the people,” and announced a 3,000-kilometre Padyatra across Bihar under the banner Jan Suraaj. He formally launched the Jan Suraaj Party on October 2, 2024.

2025 Bihar election and the Bankipur test

In October 2025, the Jan Suraaj Party released its candidate lists for the Bihar assembly election. Speculation that Kishor would contest from Raghopur, the constituency of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, ended on October 14, 2025, when Kishor confirmed he would not contest. The party lost the November 2025 election without winning a seat and later dissolved its organisational units from the panchayat to the state level.Kishor’s decision to contest the Bankipur by-election makes it his first personal election. Vote counting is underway on August 3, 2026, with Kishor leading through multiple rounds of counting.