Patna: As Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor maintains his lead in the Bankipur Assembly by-election, Rashtriya Janata Dal MP Misa Bharti launched a sharp attack, calling his anticipated victory an indirect win for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Dismissing Kishor’s political independence, Bharti alleged that the BJP secretly backed him after lacking confidence in its own candidate. She further criticized Kishor’s campaign, accusing him of making unrealistic and unfulfillable promises to the electors of the Bankipur constituency to secure their crucial votes.
RJD reacts to Prashant Kishor’s win in Bankipur bypoll
As Jan Suraaj Chief Prashant Kishor continues his lead in the Bankipur bypoll, RJD MP Misa Bharti says, “The BJP candidate has been defeated. But if Prashant Kishore is winning from there, then in a way it is still the BJP that has won. Look at the way the candidates were changed there. After all, why was the BJP candidate replaced? It appears that the BJP probably did not believe it could win on its own, which is why Prashant Kishore was fielded. During the campaign, Prashant Kishore made many promises to the people of Bankipur, promises so ambitious that many of them seem impossible to fulfil…”
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#WATCH | Delhi | As Jan Suraaj Chief Prashant Kishor continues his lead in the Bankipur bypoll, RJD MP Misa Bharti says, “The BJP candidate has been defeated. But if Prashant Kishore is winning from there, then in a way it is still the BJP that has won. Look at the way the… pic.twitter.com/0Jo9684HNy
— ANI (@ANI) August 3, 2026
Prashant Kishor’s massive win in Bankipur
Kishor, who had shied away from contesting last year’s Assembly polls, entered the fray in the by-election calling it a “referendum” on the BJP-led government in the state and claiming that his victory would cause Samrat Choudhary, the first saffron party chief minister of Bihar, to step down.
His impending victory was being 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, a report by PTI said.
Polling, which was held on July 30, had followed days of intensive campaign 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.
(With inputs from agencies)