Prashant Kishor scripts Bankipur stunner, ends BJP's 30-year Bihar bastion run

The BJP has held Bankipur in Patna since 1995, but Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor's widening lead has put its three-decade grip on the seat under threat.

In Short

• Prashant Kishor wins Bankipur by-election, Jan Suraaj Party's first victory
• Kishor beats BJP's Neeraj Kumar by 18,953 votes
• BJP held Bankipur since 1995, Kishor breaks their streak

Prashant Kishor has scripted a major political upset in Bihar's Bankipur, winning the Assembly by-election and securing Jan Suraaj Party's first electoral victory. Kishor defeated BJP's Neeraj Kumar by 18,953 votes after all 31 rounds of counting.

Kishor polled 63,203 votes, while Neeraj Kumar secured 44,250 votes. RJD candidate Rekha Kumari finished a distant third with 14,085 votes, trailing Kishor by 49,118 votes.

The closely watched contest was seen as a litmus test of whether Kishor could wrest Bankipur from the BJP, which had held the constituency continuously since 1995, when the seat was known as Patna West. His victory marks the first electoral success for Jan Suraaj after the party drew a blank in the November 2025 Assembly election despite contesting 238 seats.

Counting of votes began at 8 am amid tight security at Patna's AN College. The high-profile contest featured 26 candidates, with 31 rounds of counting scheduled.

The by-election was necessitated after BJP national president Nitin Nabin vacated the seat following his election to the Rajya Sabha in April.

The BJP fielded youth leader Neeraj Kumar, while the RJD once again nominated Rekha Kumari, who had lost to Nabin by more than 50,000 votes in the 2025 Assembly election.

The bypoll, held on July 30, recorded a voter turnout of 34.30 per cent, down by more than 7 percentage points from the 41.45 per cent registered in the last Assembly election.

KISHOR'S POLICE ALLEGATIONS

Hours before counting began, Kishor accused the Patna Police of attempting to influence the election.

In a press conference late Sunday night, he claimed campaign workers were illegally detained and voters were intimidated. He also said his party would approach the Election Commission and the Supreme Court over the alleged irregularities.

Displaying a notice issued by the Patna Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP), Kishor said the administration had detained people who had come from outside to campaign on the grounds that they could create a law-and-order problem.

He also presented some of the detained individuals before the media.

Projecting confidence ahead of the results, the Jan Suraaj chief claimed the BJP would lose the by-election by such a wide margin that it would "forget the saying that it can field even a cat or a dog and still win the election."

Kishor's victory gives Jan Suraaj its first seat in an Assembly and marks a significant breakthrough for the party, which had failed to win a single constituency in its debut Assembly election last year.

- Ends