JSP founder Prashant Kishor takes oath as Bankipur MLA, says it’s a big responsibility

JSP founder and Bankipur MLA Prashant Kishor was administered the oath of office by assembly speaker Prem Kumar in his office

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.

Jan Suraaj Party leader Prashant Kishor arrives at the Bihar Legislative Assembly to take oath of office as MLA representing the Bankipur constituency in Patna on Aug. 17 (PTI)

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”.

“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’s party contested 238 of Bihar’s 243 assembly seats in the 2025 Bihar elections but failed to win a single constituency. 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. 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).