Exclusive: Prashant Kishor set to bring Jan Suraaj Party to Delhi

Kishor, 49, is going to hold a meeting of JSP supporters in Delhi on Sunday, where a party steering committee to oversee its affairs in the national capital would be announced, sources said.

Founded by poll strategist-turned-politician Kishor on October 2, 2024, the JSP had made its Assembly poll debut in the November 2025 Bihar elections, failing to open its account despite contesting 238 of the state’s 243 seats. The elections were swept by the BJP-led NDA, which had bagged 202 seats as against the RJD-led Mahagathbandhan’s 35.

However, in August this year, Kishor bounced back by winning the high-profile Bankipur seat on his electoral debut. The bypoll in Bankipur was necessitated after its five-term MLA Nitin Nabin vacated it following his elevation as the BJP national president and his election to the Rajya Sabha.

Delhi roadmap

“The Jan Suraaj Party is now looking to build a presence in Delhi, especially among the city’s sizeable Purvanchali population,” a source said.

Many Purvanchali supporters of the JSP, who trace their roots to Bihar, are likely to attend the party’s Sunday meeting to be held at Lok Kala Manch or Janpath’s Western Court.

“The people in Delhi are tired of the BJP and the AAP. Moreover, they have seen Kishor’s vision for Bihar and Bankipur. We are hopeful of doing well in the national capital,” a party insider said.

The JSP is zeroing in on a site for its Delhi office, with sources saying a couple of locations have been shortlisted and that only formalities relating to lease and rent have yet to be finalised.

Kishor team

The proposed JSP steering committee would be a precursor to the party’s Delhi unit. According to sources, those likely to be part of this panel include advocate Tathagath Harshwardhan, son of ex-Buxar MP K K Tiwari, who was the party’s Buxar candidate in the 2025 polls; Prof Shantanu Kumar of Deshbandhu College, Delhi University; J P Singh, a former Additional Director General of Police of Himachal Pradesh who contested the Chapra seat on a party ticket.

Other JSP leaders expected to be inducted in the committee include Kunwar Chandresh, the Bihar party unit’s intellectual cell head and former IES officer; advocate Abu Affan Farooquee, Bihar unit’s minority wing chief and ex-AMU Students’ Union president; Priyanka Singh from the party’s Bihar Mahila wing; businessman Ajay Singh; and former ONGC director Badi Ud Doja, a prominent Seemanchal figure and son of former Bihar minister B Doja.

JSP play

The JSP steering committee will be mandated to put in place the structure and office-bearers of the party in Delhi, sources said.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Shantanu Kumar said: “Despite not having a party organisation in place in Delhi, we have been reaching out to people taking Kishor’s message and vision to them. The response has been positive.”

Kumar said the JSP would contest all the coming elections in Delhi, ranging from the 2027 Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) polls to the 2029 Lok Sabha elections and the 2030 Assembly polls.

“Ours is an inclusive party, as people have seen in Bihar. We have no special focus on any particular community and will take along people from all economic and social strata of society, including Purvanchalis, which constitute around 25% of the electorate,” Kumar said.

He said the JSP’s USP would be to provide “out-of-the-box solutions” to the problems plaguing the people of Delhi. “For instance, take the issue of air pollution and cleaning of Yamuna. There are mechanisms in place to tackle these issues but they are hardly effective. We will try to give innovative solutions to deal with them effectively,” he added.

Purvanchalis in Delhi, who hail from Bihar and east Uttar Pradesh, have been a key factor in determining the poll outcome in 15-20 Assembly seats. They mostly fall in the northeast, east and southeast belts of the national capital.

In the 2025 Delhi elections, the BJP stormed to power by trouncing the AAP led by three-term chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, winning 48 of 70 seats as against the latter’s 22 with the Congress again drawing a blank.

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP swept all seven seats in Delhi for the third consecutive time since 2014.