However, the big question remains if the 47-year-old Kishor will take the fight to the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader in his stronghold in the upcoming assembly election in Bihar.
Over the weekend, Kishor’s campaign trail reached Raghopur, the constituency, which the 35-year-old Tejashwi Yadav has now represented for two straight terms of five years each, in Bihar’s Vaishali district, amidst reports that the RJD leader may contest from at least two seats this time.
“”…if I have to contest from Raghopur, the people of Raghopur will have to stand with me. And whatever I’ve seen and understood today, I’ll present it at the party meeting tomorrow. In a day or two, we’ll know who’s contesting,” Kishor told news agencies on Saturday.
These are the elected representatives from the Raghopur assembly constituency since 1998:
| Election Year | Represented by… | Party |
| 1995 | Lalu Prasad Yadav | Janata Dal |
| 1998 | Rajgir Choudhary | Rashtriya Janata Dal |
| 2000 | Lalu Prasad Yadav | |
| 2000 | Rabri Devi | |
| 2005 | ||
| 2005 | ||
| 2010 | Satish Kumar Yadav | Janata Dal (United) |
| 2015 | Tejashwi Yadav | Rashtriya Janata Dal |
| 2020 |
“Let him (Tejashwi Yadav) contest from two seats. His fate in Raghopur will be the same as that of Rahul Gandhi in 2019, when the Congress leader fought two seats but ended up losing his stronghold of Amethi,” Kishor told mediapersons recently.
In the 2019 Lok Sabha election, Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress Party (which is part of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar) lost in the family stronghold of Amethi. However, he had contested from an additional seat, Wayanad in Kerala, which he won, assuring his place in the Parliament.
Gandhi had to opt for a similar strategy in 2024 too, picking Rae Bareli and Wayanad. He won both Parliamentary seats and vacated the one in Wayanad later.
Kishor’s assertion is that Yadav will face a similar fate. However, he hasn’t committed to being the primary challenger.
The suspense over Prashant Kishor’s constituency is likely to end today as the Jan Suraaj Party is set to release its second list of candidates for the Bihar Assembly elections at a press conference at 11:30 am today.
Watch this space for the latest news and updates from one of the high-stakes election due this year.
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(Edited by : Sriram Iyer)
