Unexpected mandate: Nitin Nabin after Prashant Kishor wins BJP's Bankipur bastion

Prashant Kishor defeated BJP's Neeraj Kumar in the Bankipur bypoll, ending the party's three-decade hold on the seat. BJP chief Nitin Nabin accepted the verdict and said the losses in Bankipur and Datia would be reviewed seriously.

In Short

• Nitin Nabin said unexpected defeats would be reviewed with complete seriousness
• BJP retained Gujarat's Manjalpur seat, while Congress captured Madhya Pradesh's Datia
• Kishor defeated Neeraj Kumar by 19,324 votes in the Patna contest

BJP chief Nitin Nabin on Monday said he accepted the verdict of the three Assembly bypolls, including a stunning defeat in his family bastion of Bihar's Bankipur, where Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor won, ending the saffron party's 30-year dominance.

In a post on X after the results, Nabin stressed that the results in Bankipur and Madhya Pradesh's Datia, where the Congress won, were unexpected, and an introspection would be done with "complete seriousness". He also thanked voters in Gujarat's Manjalpur, where the BJP retained the seat, for reposing faith in the party, and congratulated party workers on the victory there.

"We accept the mandate received in today's three assembly by-elections. We express our heartfelt gratitude to the people of Manjalpur assembly constituency in Gujarat for expressing their faith in the BJP. We extend our warm congratulations to all the dedicated workers and office-bearers of the BJP for this victory," Nabin tweeted in Hindi.

"In Bankipur and Datia, we did not receive the expected mandate. We will conduct a thorough introspection of the election results in both these areas with complete seriousness, and with renewed energy and determination, we will continue to go among the people and work tirelessly to further strengthen their trust, he said.

The remarks came after Kishor registered his first electoral victory, defeating BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar by 19,324 votes from the prestigious Bankipur seat in Patna. Kishor polled 64,151 votes against Kumar's 44,827, while RJD's Rekha Kumari finished a distant third with 14,273 votes.

The win marked a dramatic turnaround for the Jan Suraaj founder, whose party had failed to win a single seat in the November 2025 Assembly polls. Kishor had chosen not to contest those polls himself.

The result marked the end of the BJP's uninterrupted hold over the constituency since 1995. The bypoll was necessitated after Nabin vacated the seat following his election to the Rajya Sabha in April, and after winning the constituency for a fifth consecutive term in the Assembly polls.

The BJP's winning streak in the seat began in 1995, when it was known as the Patna West constituency, with Nabin's late father, Navin Chandra Sinha. Since then, both Sinha and Nabin had represented the constituency for three decades, making Bankipur one of the BJP's strongest bastions in Bihar.

The saffron party's Bankipur campaign also suffered a late setback after its original candidate, Abhishek "Bunty", withdrew from the contest at the eleventh hour citing "family reasons". The party subsequently fielded Neeraj Kumar.

Kishor, 49, had described the by-election as a "referendum" on the BJP-led government in Bihar. After his victory, he called it a "wake-up call" for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded a change in the state's leadership.

"The victory is a wake-up call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who must install a new Chief Minister in place of Samrat Choudhary, a man with criminal antecedents," Kishor said. Choudhary had replaced long-time CM Nitish Kumar, who went to the Rajya Sabha, in April.

The by-election witnessed a voter turnout of 34.30 per cent among nearly 3.8 lakh eligible voters, significantly lower than the 41.45 per cent recorded in the Assembly polls held just nine months ago.

(with inputs from PTI)

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