The vote-counting process for the Bankipore bypoll in Bihar is proving to be a nail-biter. By the end of six rounds, Jan Suraaj Party chief Prashant Kishor has surged into a lead of as many as ten thousand votes. BJP candidate Neeraj Sinha is running second, while RJD candidate Rekha Gupta has fallen well behind, having polled only 505 votes combined in the first two rounds. Counting began at 8 am at the local A.N. College.
Officials first counted postal ballots before starting the counting of EVM votes. The counting is set to be completed across 31 rounds at a total of 14 tables. Tight security arrangements have been made at the counting center to prevent any untoward incidents, with continuous monitoring also being carried out using drones. A total of 25 candidates, including Prashant Kishor, Neeraj Sinha, and Rekha Gupta, are testing their luck in this bypoll.
No one has managed to defeat the BJP from the Bankipore seat in the last 30 years. The BJP has held its grip on this constituency ever since 1995. Initially Navin Kishore Prasad Sinha won consecutively from here, followed by his son Nitin Nabin. Navin Kishore Prasad Sinha was the MLA from 1995 to 2005, while Nitin Nabin has continued as MLA from 2006 to 2026.
However, Nitin Nabin, BJP’s national president, who won as MLA from Bankipore in the 2025 assembly elections, was subsequently elected to the Rajya Sabha. As a result, he resigned his assembly membership, leaving the seat vacant and necessitating this bypoll.
Polling for the Bankipore bypoll concluded on July 30. Notably, only 34.30 percent voter turnout was recorded, nearly 7 percent lower than the 41.39 percent turnout recorded in the 2025 assembly elections. The fact that the election was confined to an urban area, combined with the sharp drop in voting percentage, has caused concern among political parties. While the BJP believes this situation arose because its traditional voters turned out in lower numbers, the Jan Suraaj Party is confident that the low turnout is a sign that people want change.
Since this is the first bypoll since Nitin Nabin took over as BJP national president, and since it involves the same assembly seat he represented for so long — in addition to being the first election here since the BJP government was formed — the BJP high command has treated this contest as a matter of great prestige.