YouTuber Manish Kashyap Joins BJP; To Campaign for NDA In Bihar

Bihar-based YouTuber Manish Kashyap aka Tripurari Kumar Tiwari, who had been jailed for nine months for allegedly circulating fabricated videos of “attacks” on migrant workers of Bihar in Tamil Nadu, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday.

Reportedly, he arrived in Delhi along with BJP leader and actor Manoj Tiwari, confirming the speculation about his imminent entry into the party. Reports had said he met with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President JP Nadda, following which he could be tasked with campaigning for the NDA Alliance in Bihar.

Manish Kashyap had previously announced his desire to contest the Lok Sabha elections from the West Champaran constituency but apparently has now decided against contesting the elections.

While he had initially positioned himself as an independent candidate against BJP’s Sanjay Jaiswal in West Champaran, Kashyap’s potential affiliation with BJP is fraught. There’s speculation that he might be offered a significant responsibility or even a ticket as a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) within the party.

Previously, as per Indian Express, Manish Kashyap had contested the 2020 Bihar assembly election from the Chanpatia assembly segment. The BJP, which has held Chanpatia since 2000, retained the seat with Umakant Singh securing 83,828 votes. Abhishek Ranjan of the Congress was the runner-up, followed by the Congress with 70,359 votes. Kashyap was a distant third with 9,239 votes.

Kashyap hit national headlines after the Tamil Nadu government decided to act against him in late 2023 for allegedly spreading fabricated videos claiming migrant workers from Bihar had been attacked in Tamil Nadu.

Manish Kashyap’s social media journey

Manish maintains a strong presence on his YouTube ‘Manish Kasyap Son Of Bihar’ with approximately 8.75 million subscribers, focusing on various social issues in Bihar. He has 771K followers on Instagram and often uploads videos of him visiting villages and lending a helping hand to the locals. His fans and followers have great respect for him for being a great leader and for being a ‘people’s man’.

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A post shared by Er Manish Kasyap (@ermanishkasyap)

Manish isn’t the only YouTuber turned politician!

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A post shared by Deepan Chakkravarthi | Tamilnadu Politics (@deepan.politics)

33 year old Deepan Chakkravarthi S is another content creator from Tamil Nadu who doesn’t believe in giving up. He last contested the Erode East assembly bypoll in 2023. He is now back as an independent candidate contesting the Namakkal seat. The ’12th Pass’ has termed himself as a Travel Content Creator, while registering with the Election Commission of India.

YouTubers turned politicians in Japan make headlines too

YouTubers incidentally don’t have a great reputation as politicians even in other nations. YouTuber-turned-politician Yoshikazu Higashitani, also known as GaaSyy online, was fired from the Japanese Parliament for never once showing up for work. Reports say he did not attend a single day of Parliament and now has been nicknamed ‘No-Show MP’. Higashitani’s eight-month political career came to an end on Tuesday when his coworkers voted to fire him for never once showing up for work, according to the BBC.Earlier reports say GaaSyy was accused of defrauding multiple people out of money by promising to arrange meetings between them and the members of the well-known K-Pop band BTS. Despite having lost access to his YouTube channel, where he posted celebrity gossip, Higashitani still has more than 200,000 TikTok followers, reports say.