Chanpatia: Manish Kashyap, a well-known YouTuber who was recently renamed Tripurari Kumar Tiwari, made a sensational move by formally submitting his application on Saturday to represent the Chanpatia assembly seat in the West Champaran district of Bihar.
The entry of Kashyap into the race with the support of Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party has transformed this tranquil constituency into a ground where the winner will be the one who can combine the use of social media and digital strengths with traditional political power.
Around a crowd of fans singing “Chanpatia Maange Manish Kashyap”, the 34-year-old firebrand said. “I am the citizens’ representative who fights only for them. Bihar requires a new perspective, and I am here to bring it.”
His voice, which was earlier heard in YouTube videos where he used to talk about the problems of the area, is now an electoral promise. Kashyap promised that if he was elected as an MLA, he would remove corruption from the local block in less than a week. “The sugar mills which are closed will be reopened; a steel factory will be set up in a year; schools and hospitals will be refurbished quickly, and in five years, Chanpatia will be a new face of the district,” he said while drawing a sketch of the speedy revitalisation plan.
The Jan Suraj Party gave the green light to Kashyap after rumours of the ticket distribution were buzzing. In his social media message, he expressed his gratitude to party leader Prashant Kishor for the trust and also made grateful mention of the national president Uday Singh and the state head, Manoj Bharti. “This is not an election; it is a pledge to give a louder voice to those who cannot speak in the assembly,” Kashyap said, calling votes his “greatest power” and asking for support in return.
Kashyap’s political journey is far from being linear. For a short period, he was with the BJP before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections but left the party during the PMCH incident when the party did not support him. He switched to Jan Suraj in July 2025 and now he looks forward to getting the seat at Chanpatia for the second time; he came third as an independent in 2020. A fact about him, such as when he was arrested in 2023 in Tamil Nadu for alleged fake videos on migrant attacks, makes his story more interesting and adds more flavour to his underdog narrative, apart from which there are other things in his background.
In front of him, there is a BJP candidate, Uma Kant Singh, the current MLA, a party man loyal to the organisation for a long time, who won the seat in 2020 by a handsome margin. With Bihar’s assembly election scheduled for November 6 and 11, in which more than 7.43 crore voters will be allowed to vote, the NDA-RJD duopoly could be disturbed by Kashyap’s appeal as an outsider. So the question is if the YouTuber who is now a candidate will be able to convert his online popularity into real power at the ballot box? Chanpatia is waiting to find out with deep anxiety.