Bankipur Bypoll: Nitish, Lalu Namesakes Fail to Impact

Bankipur is a voting area in the Indian state of Bihar.

In July 2024, people there went to the polls to choose a new representative because the previous member left to join the national parliament.

A political strategist named Prashant Kishor ran for the seat and won by a large margin, getting almost 64,000 votes.

Two other candidates, who only shared the names of famous leaders Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar, got very few votes – 81 and 148.

The election was held because the former BJP leader Nitin Nabin resigned after being elected to the Rajya Sabha.

The party Rashtriya Janata Dal chose a woman named Rekha Gupta to run, but she lost by more than 50,000 votes to Nitin Nabin in the earlier election.

Only about a third of the eligible voters turned out to vote, which is less than in the last election.

The results show that the famous names did not help the independent candidates.

Prashant Kishor's win is seen as a significant victory for his party.