Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor’s emphatic victory in the Bankipur by-poll, that ended three decades of uninterrupted BJP dominance, is a classic instance when even the safest urban strongholds of a comfortably ensconced ruling party are no longer immune to local discontent and shifting social coalitions. That said, the parallels between Bankipur and the 2023 Kasba Peth bypoll are too striking to dismiss as isolated by-election quirks. In the latter case, the BJP had similar