Patna, Aug 3: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor made a historic electoral debut on Monday, winning the by-poll for Bihar’s prestigious Bankipur assembly constituency, in a big blow to the BJP, which had held the seat since 1995.
The defeat, coming days after the massive Gen Z protests across the country, was even more stinging because the seat was last held by BJP president Nitin Nabin, whose elevation necessitated the by-poll on August 30.
Kishor, who got 64,151 votes, defeated BJP’s Neeraj Kumar by 19,324 votes. Kumar garnered 44,827 votes. Rekha Gupta of RJD was a distant third with 14,273 votes.
A little less than 3.8 lakh voters, including 2 lakh men and 1.79 lakh women, were eligible to vote in the polls. The by-poll recorded a voter turnout of 34.30 per cent, down by more than seven per cent from the 41.45 per cent registered in the last assembly elections, held just nine months ago.
“The victory is a wake-up call for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who must install a new Chief Minister in place of Samrat Choudhary, a man with criminal antecedents,” said Kishor, for whom it was a satisfying reversal of fortunes. In the assembly elections, his party had failed to win any seats. Kishor had decided not to contest then.
The 49-year-old Jan Suraaj founder had entered the fray, announcing that he saw the by-election as a “referendum” on the BJP-led government in the state.
Kishor, whose victory may help resurrect his fledgling outfit, also said, “On this occasion, besides thanking the common citizens, I would like to thank those who helped Jan Suraaj despite not being in the party.”
BJP had hurriedly fielded Kumar after its candidate Abhishek “Bunty” pulled out at the eleventh hour, citing “family reasons”.
The by-poll to the assembly seat was necessitated by the resignation of BJP national president Nitin Nabin, whose late father, Navin Chandra Sinha, began the party’s winning streak in 1995, when the seat was known as “Patna seat”.
Nabin had vacated the Bankipur seat in April, upon election to the Rajya Sabha, six months after having won it for the fifth time on the trot.
State BJP president Sanjay reacted to the humiliating defeat, saying, “We bow down before the will of the people. We shall draw lessons from the debacle, unlike our opponents who tend to blame every electoral loss of theirs on EVMs and the Election Commission”.
Commending Kishor, Chief Minister Chaudhary said, “In the grand festival of democracy, the people have chosen Jan Suraaj in the Bankipur Assembly bypoll. I respect the people’s verdict and extend my heartfelt congratulations to Prashant Kishor ji on his victory.”
Kishor, who had first shot to fame for managing Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, has been a vocal critic of Chaudhary.
“Bihar cannot be treated as a factory that produces cheap labour. I do not promise that my becoming the MLA will make Bankipur on par with Bengaluru. But, when Gujarat, the home state of Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is looking forward to having a bullet train, the people of Bihar certainly have a right to expect something better than passenger trains”, said Kishor, amid screams of “Jai Bihar”, the Jan Suraaj Party’s ubiquitous slogan.
Jan Suraaj supporters swarmed the streets and gathered in massive numbers at AN College, where the votes were counted. Kishor’s wife, Jahnavi Das, who usually stays away from politics, also chose to be by her husband’s side in his moment of glory.
“This victory belongs to the people of Bihar”, said Das, who hails from Assam.
In the BJP camp, the exuberance on display in the morning, when hundreds of party supporters turned up at a city-based sweets shop to pick up 200 kg of ‘laddoos’ they had ordered expecting a certain victory, gave way to shock and despondency as vote counting proceeded and the lead enjoyed by Kishor grew almost progressively with every round.
Kishor’s victory was hailed as “a lesson to the arrogant BJP” even by those outside his party, like Janshakti Janata Dal president Tej Pratap Yadav, the estranged elder son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad, and CPI(ML) Liberation general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, whose party is an INDIA bloc partner.
Polling, held on July 30, followed days of intensive campaigning by Kishor as well as the BJP, with both sides repeatedly accusing each other of electoral malpractices and approaching the Election Commission over the issue.
“The verdict in Bankipur must be viewed in the backdrop of the wider dissatisfaction with the BJP, which recently got reflected in the students’ protests. Of course, credit must also be given to Prashant Kishor, who displayed enormous energy and organisational skills,” said veteran socialist leader Shivanand Tiwary, who had been one of the foremost participants in the ‘JP movement’ of the 1970s and, in a political career spanning many decades, has been with parties like RJD and JD(U).
RJD spokesman Chitaranjan Gagan, whose party has often charged Kishor with being the “B team of BJP”, came out with a statement expressing delight over the verdict.
“For us, the defeat of the BJP in its stronghold is of greater importance than who won”, said Gagan. (PTI)
