State Assembly bypolls: Prashant Kishor's Bihar win headlines mixed fortunes for BJP, Congress

New Delhi: Poll strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor won the high-profile Bankipur Assembly bypoll in Bihar on Monday, handing the BJP its first defeat in the constituency in over three decades. The setback, coupled with another loss in Madhya Pradesh's Datia, capped a disappointing day for the BJP, although the party retained Gujarat's Manjalpur Assembly seat.

Kishor, founder of the Jan Suraaj Party, defeated BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar by 19,324 votes in the Bankipur contest. Kishor secured 64,151 votes, while Kumar polled 44,827. RJD's Rekha Gupta finished a distant third with 14,273 votes.

The victory marks Kishor's first electoral contest and a major breakthrough for his fledgling party. It is also the BJP's first loss in Bankipur since 1995. The bypoll was necessitated after BJP national president Nitin Nabin vacated the seat following his election to the Rajya Sabha.

The defeat comes just days after widespread Gen Z-led protests across the country, adding to the political significance of the result for the ruling party.

In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP also suffered a setback after failing to wrest the Datia Assembly seat from the Congress. The party's decision to replace six-time MLA Narottam Mishra with first-time candidate Ashutosh Tiwari failed to pay dividends.

Congress candidate Ghanshyam Singh defeated Tiwari by 6,016 votes. The bypoll was necessitated after Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti lost his Assembly membership following his conviction and three-year prison sentence in a cheating case by a Delhi court earlier this year.

The BJP, however, managed to retain the Manjalpur Assembly constituency in Gujarat's Vadodara district. Party candidate Satish Govindbhai Patel defeated Congress nominee and former minister Bhikhabhai Rabari by 30,630 votes.

According to the Election Commission, Patel polled 55,481 votes, while Rabari secured 24,851 after all 20 rounds of counting. The bypoll was necessitated by the death of senior BJP MLA and former minister Yogesh Patel in June.

Although the BJP retained the seat, its victory margin fell sharply from the record 1,00,754-vote margin it registered in the 2022 Gujarat Assembly elections.