Prashant Kishor wins Bankipur bypoll, marks successful electoral debut

The Bankipur Assembly constituency went to the bypolls on July 30 after sitting MLA Nitin Nabin vacated the seat following his election to the Rajya Sabha.

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor has won the Bankipur Assembly bypoll in Bihar, defeating BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha in his electoral debut.

 

The Bankipur Assembly constituency went to the bypolls on July 30 after sitting MLA Nitin Nabin of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) vacated the seat following his election to the Rajya Sabha.

 

The contest drew national attention as it marked poll strategist-turned-politician Kishor's first electoral battle from a constituency that had remained a BJP stronghold for nearly three decades.

 

Kishor established an early lead from the first round of counting and maintained it throughout. He secured victory over Sinha by an unassailable margin after leading by 15,864 votes following 26 of the 31 counting rounds.

 

The win sparked celebrations among Jan Suraaj Party workers, marking a major breakthrough for the fledgling outfit after it failed to win any seats in the Bihar Assembly elections held in November last year.

 

Nitin Nabin had represented the seat since 2010. Before him, his father, Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, held the constituency. The BJP had fielded its youth wing leader, Neeraj Kumar Sinha, to retain the seat, which falls under the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency.

 

The bypoll recorded a voter turnout of 34.30 per cent (around 130,208 voters), down by more than seven percentage points from the 41.45 per cent recorded in the last Assembly elections.

 

Ahead of the results, Kishor had said he deliberately chose to contest from a BJP bastion to send a message that Bihar's politics must move beyond caste and religion.

 

"When people start their electoral politics, they look for safe seats for themselves... I am doing the opposite because I am telling the people of Bihar that if Bihar is to change, they must vote beyond caste and religion," he told ANI.

 

"They must stop voting out of fear of Lalu for the BJP, or fear of the BJP for Lalu. To prove the point, I am explaining to the people of Bihar that I am contesting from a place where votes should not be sought in the name of caste or religion," he added.