Kishor wins Bankipur seat vacated by BJP prez; Oppn calls it ‘beginning of the end’
NEW DELHI, AUG 3 (PTI): The BJP on Monday suffered major setbacks in assembly bypolls, losing the Bankipur seat in Bihar to Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor and the Datia seat in Madhya Pradesh to the Congress, prompting Opposition parties to describe the verdict as the “beginning of the end” for the saffron party.
The BJP, however, retained the Manjalpur assembly seat in Gujarat, though with a reduced margin.
Kishor’s victory came as a major blow to the BJP, which had held Bankipur continuously since 1995. The seat fell vacant after BJP national president Nitin Nabin resigned as MLA following his elevation to the party’s top post. Making his electoral debut, the 49-year-old Kishor defeated BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar by 19,324 votes, securing 64,151 votes. His Jan Suraaj Party had failed to win a single seat in the 2025 Bihar Assembly election.
Calling the bypoll a “referendum” on the BJP-led government in Bihar, Kishor said the verdict was “a wake-up call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi”, urging him to replace chief minister Samrat Choudhary.
In Madhya Pradesh, Congress retained Datia, with Ghanshyam Singh defeating BJP’s Ashutosh Tiwari by 6,016 votes. The bypoll was necessitated after a Delhi court sentenced sitting Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti to three years’ imprisonment in a cheating case.
The election was held amid student protests over alleged paper leaks and internal dissent within the BJP after senior leader Narottam Mishra was denied a ticket.
Opposition parties said the results reflected growing public discontent with the BJP over issues such as paper leaks, alleged Ram temple donation theft and the rollout of E20 petrol.
Congress leader Pawan Khera termed the outcome a “moral defeat” for the BJP and said the Congress victory in Madhya Pradesh, considered an RSS stronghold, was significant despite the BJP being in power.
AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal said the people wanted change, while Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra claimed the BJP’s “bad time has started”. Senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said the victories of Kishor and Ghanshyam Singh would send a strong message to the BJP. CPI(M) general secretary M.A. Baby termed the BJP’s defeat in Bankipur politically significant.