Published Aug 03, 2026 | 4:57 PM ⚊ Updated Aug 03, 2026 | 6:28 PM
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor.
Synopsis: JSP founder Prashant Kishor has won the Bankipur by-election, ending the BJP’s over three-decade-old reign over the region. Kishor’s win marks a significant breakthrough for the JSP and an embarrassing loss for the BJP, whose current national president Nitin Nabin had held the seat for five consecutive terms.
Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor has wrested the Bankipur constituency from the BJP, marking a significant loss for the saffron party that has held the seat for over three decades. The election also marks the first political contest for the BJP-led NDA in the state, after the departure of JDU supremo Nitish Kumar as the chief minister.
As the counting of votes in the by-election to the constituency concluded on Monday, Kishor, who was making his electoral debut, secured 63946 votes, beating BJP’s Neeraj Kumar Sinha by a margin of over 19200 votes. Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Rekha Kumari has ended up in third place.
The 49-year-old Kishor’s win will also see Jan Suraaj open its account in the Bihar Assembly.
The by-election to the Bankipur constituency was necessitated after BJP’s national president Nitin Nabin, who won the seat for a fifth time in the recent Assembly elections, resigned on being nominated to the Rajya Sabha. The elections were held on July 31 and recorded a mere 34 % voter turnout.
In a major setback to the saffron party, the BJP also lost the by-election in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia seat to the Congress. It however, reatined the Manjalpur seat in Gujarat.
Bankipur is a BJP bastion that has never betrayed its loyalty to the saffron fold since it was carved out in 2008. Nitin Nabin has held the seat for five consecutive terms. Before the delimitation that led to the creation of the constituency, both Nabin and his father Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha had represented the Patna West constituency, reflecting the stronghold of the family in the region.
The by-elections were seen as the first big test for the saffron party after Samrat Choudhary assumed charge as Bihar’s first BJP chief minister, following a historical win in the Assembly polls. It is also the first time the party is facing a public verdict after the student-led protests against examination irregularities that culminated in the resignation of former Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Patna was one of the hotspots of the nationwide protests.
Also Read: Opposition questions Amit Shah’s absence in Parliament amid protests; two Bills introduced in LS
Prashant Kishor launched the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) in October 2024, ahead of the Bihar Assembly elections, projecting it as a new alternative to the traditional parties. His party contested 238 of the state’s 243 constituencies but failed to win any. In Bankipur, the JSP candidate managed to get just less than 5% of the votes.
According to an Indian Express report, the party had lost a lot of its workers after the Assembly poll debacle, limiting its campaign team to just 100 volunteers. The report noted that even as the party managed to have supporters, they did not have workers who could do door-to-door campaigning. The newspaper also quoted a volunteer as saying that the JSP would have lost more supporters if it did not manage to win the byelection.
However, reports also suggested that the BJP and RJD had both suffered a significant erosion of support in the constituency. Only the upper-caste Kayasthas were said to be standing steadfast in their support for the BJP.
Neeraj Kumar, a youth wing leader, was seen as too much of a lightweight and not an able replacement for Nitin Nabin.
With the team of 100 volunteers and limited numbers of supporters who occasionally stepped in to assist in the ground work, the party has managed to win against the BJP’s mighty campaign that had mobilised cadres from all the districts in the state.
Kishor’s stature and his strategy of going to the mohalla level to establish a connect with the voters and channelling their concerns around jobs and education, along with civic issues, were seen to have helped him ahead of the polls.
(Compiled by Fayisa CA)
