Did Gen Z protests drive Prashant Kishor’s stunning bye-poll win in Bihar?

Election strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor victory in the bye-election in Bihar’s Bankipur Assembly constituency on Monday came as a surprise to many, given that the Bharatiya Janata Party had held the seat for more than three decades. Kishor defeated the candidate for the Hindutva party by over 19,000 votes.

Less than nine months ago, during the Assembly polls, the candidate from Kishor’s Jan Suraaj Party finished a distant third in Bankipur. Nitin Nabin had won this seat for a fifth consecutive time. The bye-election became necessary because Nabin, who is now the BJP’s national president, moved the Rajya Sabha.

When the bye-election was announced, Kishor, whose decision to not contest the Assembly polls himself had been criticised by his supporters, was first to throw his hat in the ring.

On the campaign trail, Kishor trained his guns on the BJP, questioning its choice of chief minister and accusing it of betraying the mandate it had been given by Bihar’s voters. He pitched the contest in Bankipur as a “referendum” on the BJP’s decision to put party member Samrat Choudhary in the chief minister’s chair in April, easing out long-term ally, Nitish Kumar, of the Janata Dal (United).

The result on Monday is likely to provide a fillip to Kishor’s...

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