Despite hype, Jan Suraaj mattered only on 32 seats in Bihar polls

Forall the hype thatit created ahead of the 2025 Bihar election, poll strategist-turnedpolitician Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) made a difference in only 32 of the 238 seats that it contested and bagged the third spot on 129 seats, an analysis of the election results shows.

- SHIKHA SALARIA

Prashant Kishor

While it bagged 3.41 per cent of the total votes across Bihar, the JSP came second only on one of the seats that it had contested, with political experts calling its performance as poor and below expectations.

However, political analysts are not writing off the JSP immediately.

Ananalysis of the JSP’s performance by the TDG on all the 238 seats that it contested, shows that in 32 seats, the votes won by the party's candidates were more than the margin of votes with which the winning candidate won these seats.

These include Amnour, Bajpatti, Bakhtiarpur, Balrampur, Sandesh, Sherghati, Zivadei, Singheshwar, Sonepur, Taraiya, Wazirganj, Tikari, Karakat, Makhdumpur, Marhaura, Matihani, Nabinagar, Narkatia, Ramgarh, Bibhutipur, Bodh Gaya, Chanpatia, Cheria, Dhaka, Fatuha, Forbesganj, Gobindpur, Goh, Harsidhi, Jehanabad, Jhajha and Joki-hat While 17 of these seats were won by the NDA, the Mahagathbandhan coalition won 13 of these seats while Asaduddin Owaisi’s AIMIM and Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party won one seat each.

Significantly, only one JSP candidate won the second position in the Marhaura seat of the Bhojpur region of Bihar while its candidates remained on the third spot inas many as 129 seats.