Patna: The 2025 Bihar election results have brought a major disappointment for Prashant Kishor and his party, Jan Suraj. After three years of continuous campaigning, village tours and public meetings, the party could not register a single win among the 243 seats it contested. The expectation was high and Kishor had hoped to convert his long grassroots outreach into votes. But when the final numbers came out, Jan Suraj found itself far away from victory and the results shocked both the leadership and the supporters.
Overall, Jan Suraj received around three percent vote share. For a first-time party, this vote share was not very poor. However, the seat-wise performance told a very different and worrying story. On more than 50 seats across the state, Jan Suraj candidates received fewer votes than NOTA — the “None of the Above” option. In fact, on more than 25 percent of all seats, voters preferred pressing NOTA over choosing Jan Suraj candidates. For example, in Alinagar, Jan Suraj got only 2,275 votes while NOTA recorded 4,751. In Amarpur, the Jan Suraj candidate got 4,789 votes while NOTA crossed 6,000. In Aurangabad, the party managed 2,755 votes whereas NOTA received 3,352. Even in Kochadhaman, NOTA slightly crossed the party — 2,039 votes against 1,976.
The disappointment continued among the party’s most popular names. Jan Suraj had 238 candidates, but 236 of them lost their deposits, which shows how little support the party got across the state. Even well-known figures could not make an impact. Ritesh Pandey from Kargahar got 16,258 votes and came third. In Kumhrar, Professor KC Sinha also finished third with 15,000 votes. Sarfaraz Alam from Jokihat received 35,000 votes but could not rise beyond third position. YouTuber Manish Kashyap, one of the most talked-about faces of Jan Suraj, earned 37,000 votes but still came third.
For Prashant Kishor, who built his reputation as one of India’s most successful election strategists, this result is a tough blow. The party had promised to bring a new model of politics and to change Bihar’s political culture. But the voters made a different choice. Now the big question for Jan Suraj is whether it will continue its journey and rebuild from this heavy loss, or whether the Bihar verdict will become the end of the political experiment that once attracted nationwide attention.
