Prashant Kishor knocks out BJP in Bihar's Bankipur

And finally, Prashant Kishor can rest easy tonight. After months of relentless campaigning, door-to-door outreach and countless hours on the ground, the Jan Suraaj founder has his reward. On Monday, Kishor scripted history by securing his party's maiden electoral victory, defeating the BJP in the high-stakes Bankipur Assembly bypoll and ending its uninterrupted 30-year hold over one of its strongest bastions in Bihar.

Kishor defeated BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha by 19,324 votes, polling 64,151 votes against Sinha's 44,827, while RJD's Rekha Gupta finished a distant third with 14,273 votes. Having surged ahead in the early counting trends, Kishor steadily widened his lead, with his victory becoming virtually certain by the 15th round of counting out of a total of 32 rounds.

The victory capped months of groundwork by the Jan



Suraaj chief, who hit the campaign trail nearly two months before the BJP and the RJD launched their full-fledged election efforts. During this period, Kishor held public meetings, conducted extensive door-to-door outreach and built a booth-level organisation across the constituency, giving his fledgling party a head start over its rivals.

Throughout the campaign, Kishor projected the by-election as a "referendum on the Samrat Choudhary government". His campaign focused heavily on employment, education and governance, with a special emphasis on first-time and Gen Z voters.

The BJP, meanwhile, treated the contest as a prestige battle, deploying around 40 star campaigners and thousands of party workers to retain the seat. Several senior leaders campaigned extensively in Bankipur during the final phase of the election.