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Bankipur By-Election Upset Clouds Investment Outlook for Bihar
Prashant Kishor's victory in the BJP stronghold Bankipur signals voter discontent and could complicate policy continuity ahead of the 2026 Bihar assembly elections, analysts said.
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Prashant Kishor's Jan Suraaj Party won the Bankipur assembly bypoll on Monday, defeating the BJP's Neeraj Kumar by 19,324 votes. Kishor took 64,151 votes against Kumar's 44,827. Rekha Gupta of the RJD finished third with 14,273 votes.
The seat had been held by the BJP since 1995. It fell vacant after the party's national president, Nitin Nabin, resigned as MLA to take up his new role. Losing his own seat in a bypoll, in a party stronghold, is a stinging setback for the BJP.
Congress leader Pawan Khera called it a "moral defeat" for the BJP. "The beginning of the end of the BJP rule," he said. AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal said the party's "ground has completely slipped away," citing corruption allegations, paper leaks, and the E20 controversy as sources of voter discontent. Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra said the BJP's "bad time has started," noting the party could hold only one of the three seats it contested in this bypoll cycle.