Does Prashant Kishor’s victory really signal a major loss for Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and does it spell a key sign of Modi-wave fading away? BJP’s success in Indian elections has been credited primarily to Modi-wave or the popularity assumed to be enjoyed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Likewise, failure of BJP is instantly linked with a decline in Modi-wave. Well-known political strategist, Kishore, who is also known as PK, has entered the Bihar Assembly by winning bypoll from Bankipur constituency. This seat was earlier held by BJP member Nitin Nabin and became vacant after he resigned on being elected to upper house of parliament, earlier this year. Nabin had inherited the seat from his father. Nabin had won 98,299 votes from this constituency in 2025. He had defeated his rival Rekha Kumari of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) by a margin of 51,936 votes. Against this backdrop, BJP’s failure to retain this seat certainly seems fairly surprising. 
There is yet another side to this. It is possible, voters of Bankipur strongly associated this seat with Nabin and not really with BJP. With Nabin no more on Bankipur’s political stage, they probably, chose to turn towards PK. Loss of one seat in the 243-member Bihar Assembly doesn’t spell a major loss for BJP.  At the same time, within less than a year, PK’s success- spelling loss for BJP- cannot be sidelined. During assembly polls held less than a year ago, PK’s party – Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) - failed to win even five percent votes from Bankipur. Now, in bypoll from the same constituency, PK has won more than 49% votes. With 64151 votes, PK has won the seat which had been held by BJP since 1995. 
What perhaps must be fairly unnerving for BJP, is that their candidate has got just 44827 seats this time, roughly 53,000 less than what Nabin won in 2025.  This certainly signal not just a major loss for BJP within less than a year’s time but also refusal of a significant number of voters to support the party’s new face from Bankipur. Just when BJP was probably getting a little too confident about its command in Bihar, it has been pushed out from a constituency which the party viewed as its stronghold. BJP’s concern is not simply that of PK’s victory but that of people of Bankipur having voted against it. 
PK has certainly been trying hard for quite some time. He has at least succeeded in becoming the lone representative of his party in Bihar Assembly. He has finally succeeded in pronouncing his legislative presence in the state politics.
It is possible, Gen-Z’s protest helped PK win. Now, does this imply, if the Jantar Mantar protest was not held, PK may not have won? BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar has not fared miserably in the polls. He has won around 34% votes. Except for RJD candidate, Rekha Kumari, who has got around 10%, the other candidates have not able to manage even a percentage of votes. Twenty-five candidates were in the race. But, compared to Nabin having secured 63.25% votes in 2025, Kumar has got much lesser. Perhaps, Cockroaches’ anti-BJP stir contributed to this and helped PK win. 
Paradoxically, in context of PK having been favored because of Gen-Z, he is being considered a strong rival for BJP. Well, it is as yet too early to view him as a political heavy-weight. Of course, there is no denying that he is getting (and will probably continue doing so) a good media coverage. However, this does not always guarantee an equally strong support from voters. PK, as is well known, tried his party’s luck in 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. JSP contested 238 seats without winning a single. Less than four percent votes favored it. From one angle, considering the party was formed in October 2024, there is nothing surprising about this. Nevertheless, the fact that PK has been in the news for quite sometime cannot be denied. It is possible Cockroaches Jantar Mantar protest helped PK also gain against BJP. But on the strength of one single seat, he certainly does not pose much of a threat for BJP.
Besides, BJP did not win an absolute majority in 2025 Bihar Assembly elections on its own strength. BJP won 89 seats and its ally Janata Dal-United (JD-U)- 85 seats. It is possible, BJP may not have tasted success in Bihar Assembly polls last year, if it were not for the alliance with JD-U. Were JD-U allied with RJD, BJP may have still been the opposition in Bihar Assembly. JD-U leader Nitish Kumar’s popularity is also responsible for its alliance with BJP having won the polls with a sweeping majority. Though the key opposition party RJD won only 25 seats, it still cannot be dismissed as a spent force in Bihar. RJD secured a greater percentage of votes than BJP and JD-U in 2025. 
Modi-wave has been on the decline for quite some time. During the last parliamentary elections despite Prime Minister Modi having put all electoral strategies to the maximum use possible, his party failed to win majority. It had to enter into an alliance with two regional parties to gain majority and head the government. This was voters’ decision despite BJP leaders having gone overboard in using religious and anti-Pakistan cards. 
Undeniably, thanks to manufactured news, to a considerable degree, hype has certainly been created about Modi-wave as well as BJP. However, due to new importance gained by communication, in general, people have started giving less importance to what is spread by manufactured news and/or controlled media. If only controlled media held sway, in all probability, CJP and its supporters would have received hardly any coverage. 
During campaign for 2024 polls, Modi did gain attention which rested primarily on manipulated agenda focusing on propagating his image and status. Little importance was apparently paid to economic grievances of people at various levels. Younger generation of Indian voters probably gave substantial importance to this fact. With their being disturbed by issues such as unemployment, increasing inflation, the hard reality of rich growing richer, poor-poorer and so forth, Modi’s rhetoric, weaving dreams, mattered little for them. In their opinion, Modi had been given ten years to fulfil his promises but he had failed them. It may be noted, extensive display of religious-card by Modi carried little appeal for voters more concerned about their economic problems. People pronounced their opinion about Modi and his government through their right to vote in 2024. Cockroaches and their supporters displayed the same more loudly at the Jantar Mantar protest. PK’s victory from Bankipur may be viewed as a continuation of the same trend. 
In the coming days, it is possible, rather than see PK as a rival, BJP may count on it as a strong ally to weaken its ally JD-U as well as  opposition parties - RJD and Congress. PK’s command over one seat in Bihar Assembly doesn’t pose much of a threat for BJP. Nevertheless, PK has certainly spelled a shock for BJP by preventing it from tasting success in Bankipur, which it had enjoyed over for more than three decades. Perhaps, it signals another dent in hype about Modi-wave!