Prashant Kishor spent years picking winners for other politicians. Now he’s testing whether he can win for himself, and early numbers suggest he might.
Vote counting for the Bankipur Assembly bypoll in Bihar began Monday at A.N. College in Patna. Kishor, contesting for the first time under his own party, Jan Suraaj, took an early lead over BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha. Heavy security and drone surveillance are monitoring the process across 14 counting tables and 31 total rounds.
The Numbers So Far
By the end of Round 3, Kishor held 5,032 votes against Sinha’s 3,870 — a lead of 1,162 votes. RJD’s Rekha Gupta trailed further back in third with 767 votes. Kishor sustained his advantage through five consecutive early rounds, though with 31 rounds total, plenty of counting remains.
A BJP Fortress Since 1995
Bankipur isn’t just any seat. The BJP has held it, under its earlier name Patna West, since 1995. Outgoing MLA Nitin Nabin won it five straight times, most recently with a commanding 62.66% vote share in November 2025. He vacated the seat this April after winning election to the Rajya Sabha and going on to become BJP’s national president. That history is exactly why an early Kishor lead here counts as news, rather than a routine bypoll update.
Why This Matters So Much for Kishor
This isn’t Kishor’s first swing at electoral politics — it’s his first swing that actually counts. Jan Suraaj contested 238 of 243 seats in Bihar’s November 2025 Assembly election and won none of them, with many candidates even trailing NOTA. Kishor has since framed Bankipur as proof of concept for what he calls “alternative politics” in Bihar. A win here would mark his first real foothold after that earlier wipeout.
A Complaint Before the Count Even Started
The bypoll wasn’t without friction before ballots were even opened. Jan Suraaj filed a formal complaint against Patna Police, alleging officers illegally detained 54 of the party’s leaders and supporters ahead of polling. Kishor claimed the detentions happened at the BJP’s request; police countered that they were enforcing the standard pre-election “silence period.” Turnout, meanwhile, came in low at 34.24%, well below the 41.45% recorded during last November’s Assembly election — a gap that makes the outcome harder to predict across a field of 26 candidates.
What’s Still Unclear
Counting was still underway at the time of writing, with 28 rounds left to go. Early leads in Indian bypolls don’t always hold once counting moves through denser urban booths, so the real headline — whether Kishor breaks a three-decade BJP streak — is still being written.
