BJP Replaces Candidate Against Prashant Kishor For Bypoll In Bihar's Bankipur

In an abrupt development, the BJP on Friday named youth wing leader Neeraj Kumar Sinha as its candidate for the bypoll to the Bankipur assembly seat in Bihar, after nominee Abhishek Kumar Sinha pulled out citing "family reasons".

Abhishek Kumar Sinha, popularly known as Bunty, who is a vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha's state unit, expressed his inability to contest the bypoll a day after filing nomination papers, causing the opposition to chuckle that the ruling party was "jittery at the prospects of a defeat" in the seat vacated by BJP national president Nitin Nabin.

Addressing a press conference, where he took no questions, Abhishek Kumar Sinha said, "Because of family reasons, I am unable to contest the bypoll. But I will continue to work for the party as a committed worker. I have conveyed the same to state president Sanjay Saraogi." Within minutes, the BJP national headquarters in New Delhi came out with a statement announcing that the central election committee has decided to field 32-year-old Neeraj Kumar Sinha.

According to BJP sources here, he is a resident of Mithapur locality in the city and better known as the nephew of the late Narendra Bharti Mandal, a popular local-level leader of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, the name by which the party was known in its previous avatar.

Although neither is well known in political circles here, both Bharti as well as Sinha are understood to have been picked by Nabin, who gave up the seat in April following election to the Rajya Sabha, and is said to know the assembly constituency well, having represented it five times in a row.

Despite the party never losing the seat since 1995, when Nabin's late father Navin Kishore Sinha bagged the constituency, then known as Patna West, for the first time, a high-voltage contest is expected in the upcoming bypoll with Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor throwing his hat in the ring.

Kishor, who is expected to file his nomination papers on Monday, the last date, has been campaigning intensively and calling upon voters to register their dissatisfaction over the BJP appointing Samrat Choudhary as the chief minister by defeating the party in the bypoll.

"I know that even if I win, the NDA, which enjoys a brute majority, will not lose power. But the people had voted for (JDU president) Nitish Kumar. They can make the BJP top brass understand their displeasure by defeating it in Bankipur. I promise that just one MLA of Jan Suraaj Party will outweigh the remaining 242 ones" - has been a common refrain of Kishor.

The 47-year-old former poll strategist, who had accused the BJP of having poached many Jan Suraaj Party candidates in the run-up to the assembly elections held in November last year, sneered at the saffron party over the rumblings in Bankipur.

"The BJP is known to entice or intimidate candidates of other parties. Now, its own candidates are running away, jittery at the prospects of a defeat. They used to brag that they can win Bankipur even if they fielded a dog or a cat. The people have decided to punish the party for the slight," he said at a public meeting.

Incidentally, Abhishek Kumar Sinha's announcement came shortly after a meeting of the BJP-led NDA held at the chief minister's residence, and speculations were rife that "negative inputs" about the candidate may have been behind the sudden turn of events.

When Kishor was asked about the perception, he said: "I do not know about the NDA meeting. But, Bankipur is witnessing a meeting of the people who are determined to vote against the Samrat Choudhary government. I shall not brag that the BJP is scared of me. But, they are certainly scared of the public anger. They have begun to realise that before the will of the people, the ED, CBI and the entire power machinery is powerless." BJP sources, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that a close family member of Abhishek Kumar Sinha was convicted in the fodder scam, and the party was wary that Kishor could put it on the back foot once he got the wind of the "tainted background".

"So, it is an admission on the part of the BJP that it fields corrupt people. All the more reason for the people not to vote for the party," Kishor said.

The seat is also being contested by RJD's Rekha Gupta, the runner-up of the 2025 assembly elections.

RJD spokesman Shakti Yadav claimed that Abhishek Kumar Sinha "has not withdrawn the candidature of his own accord, but has been forced to pull out at the instance of the BJP high command".

Congress spokesman Asit Nath Tiwari, whose party is an RJD ally, said in a statement: "Nitin Nabin had given a ticket to one of his cohorts believing that as national president he was in a position to call the shots. But he got tattled upon by his detractors and received a dressing down from Union Home Minister Amit Shah".

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)