How Prashant Kishor cracked BJP’s Bankipur bastion? What you must know

Patna: In a major political comeback of sorts, Jan Suraaj Party’s on Monday defeated BJP’s Neeraj Kumar by a margin of 19,324 votes. While he got 64, 151 votes, Neeraj got 44,827 votes. Considered as one of the safest seats for the BJP in Bihar, the saffron party lost the seat after nearly 35 years.

Current BJP President won from Bankipur seat five times. While he was first elected from the seat in 2010, he left the seat this year after winning the Rajya Sabha polls, following his appointment as the party president. It was Prashant Kishor’s first election in the constituency on Monday.

Only one seat went to by-poll in Bihar

The by-election was held for just one seat in Bihar. The entire Bihar cabinet, including BJP National President Nitin Navin, Chief Minister Samrat Chaudhary, and several Union Ministers—camped in Bankipur for several days, hoping to win from the constituency, but the outcome of the results was not as per their expectations.

Notably, Kishor had hit the campaign trail in Bankipur a couple of months before the BJP and RJD. Kishor had started holding public meetings, conducted door-to-door outreach and built a booth-level organisation in the constituency.

Voters unhappy with BJP?

Among other reasons which might have also influenced the result was voters unhappy with the BJP. Several experts and locals are of the opinion that the BJP was growing overconfident in recent times. Recent NEET protests might have also influenced the results in the constituency.

Also, unhappiness over Bharat Tewari’s encounter might have resulted in the BJP’s historic defeat. The incident led to the questioning of CM Samrat Choudhary’s administration. In recent times, people seem to be unhappy over his governance. Since Kishor started campaigning for the polls, his appeals looked to have influenced the voters, resulting in such a massive defeat for the BJP.