High Drama Before Bihar Bypoll, Prashant Kishor Claims Supporters Detained

Hours before voting began for the crucial bypoll in Bihar's Bankipur, high drama unfolded on Thursday night in the constituency.

Jan Suraaj Party founder and candidate Prashant Kishor on Thursday accused the Bihar Police of detaining many of his supporters, allegedly at the behest of the ruling BJP, which he said "fears losing the bypoll" in the Bankipur assembly seat.

Kishor, who is making his electoral debut by contesting the seat, made the allegation barely a few hours before voting was scheduled to begin for the bypoll necessitated by BJP MLA Nitin Nabin's resignation.

Kishor and his supporters camped at Patna's Jakkanpur police station, where heated arguments were seen between them and the police, who allegedly refused to disclose the whereabouts of the detained JSP members.

JSP supporters arguing with the police

Talking to reporters outside the police station, Kishor said, "I have been camping here for the past few hours, and the police are unable to divulge the whereabouts of more than 16 of my supporters who have been rounded up."

"I am not describing these as arrests since there is no record of which of my people have been named in which case. I came to this police station after learning that they had been kept at Jakkanpur. But here I am told that they have all been taken to different police stations. The SHO here even claims that the police station was not involved in the detentions, which were carried out at the instance of higher-ups," the former poll strategist alleged.

Kishor also alleged that the Station House Officer threatened him and his supporters, saying he would "deal with them after taking off his uniform."

After arguing with the SHO for over half an hour, Kishor said the officer would lose his job if anything happened to his supporters.

The Jan Suraaj Party founder claimed that "clearly, the ruling BJP is behind these detentions."

"It knows it is going to lose the bypoll. The police can keep a person in custody for 24 hours without producing him before a magistrate. So a plan has been devised to keep some of my supporters in custody till voting is over," he claimed.

He said this "misuse of administrative machinery", however, cannot ensure the victory of the ruling NDA, which has roped in "almost all 201 of its MLAs" for the campaign.

Although 26 candidates are in the fray in Bankipur, the contest is being seen as primarily between Kishor and BJP's Neeraj Kumar Sinha, a youth wing leader.

The Jan Suraaj Party leader added, "I am sitting at the police station to highlight the sheer lack of professionalism on the part of the police. The SHO here has tried to intimidate us and threatened to book one of my party colleagues under the draconian prohibition law. Once we are through with the bypoll, we will definitely press for action against the erring police officials."