The Jan Suraaj Party won its first election on Sunday when its leader, Prashant Kishor, took the Bankipur Assembly seat by 19,246 votes. The victory ended the BJP’s 30-year hold on the constituency, which the party had controlled since 1995.
Prashant Kishor, a former political strategist-turned-politician, secured 63,946 votes. His opponent, BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar, received 44,700. The Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate, Rekha Kumari, secured 14,241 votes.
BJP Loses Patna Stronghold
The Bankipur seat had been one of the BJP’s most secure urban bases in Bihar. The party had won it in every election since 1995, when the area was called Patna West. The defeat marks a rare setback for the BJP, which still holds a majority in the state assembly.
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The bypoll became necessary after sitting MLA Nitin Nabin left the seat in April to join the Rajya Sabha. Nabin had won Bankipur for the fifth time in the 2025 Assembly elections, beating the RJD’s Rekha Gupta by over 50,000 votes.
Kishor chose to run himself instead of backing another candidate, running an aggressive campaign against both the BJP and the RJD while projecting Jan Suraaj as an alternative to Bihar’s established political parties.
Both sides traded accusations during the race. Kishor claimed the BJP used police to block his supporters, a charge the party rejected. The BJP called his claims false and accused him of making baseless allegations.
Low turnout and broader implications
Voting took place on July 30, with 34.30% of eligible voters participating. That was down from 41.45% in the November 2025 Bihar Assembly elections.
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Twenty-six candidates competed, but the main contest was between Kishor and the BJP’s Kumar. The result is likely to be read as a signal of anti-incumbency sentiment against the NDA government in Bihar, even as the party retains a comfortable majority in the state assembly overall.
The win is also being seen as an early boost for Jan Suraaj ahead of larger electoral tests in Bihar.
The BJP’s loss in a seat it held for nearly three decades suggests trouble in its urban base.
