It is the “beginning of the end” for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) national spokesperson Derek O’Brien has said. The Rajya Sabha member on Monday targeted the party over its performance in the Bankipur assembly bypoll in Bihar, where Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was leading by a comfortable margin during the counting of votes as of 3:30 pm.
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“BEGINNING OF THE END,” O’Brien wrote, using all-caps to press his point, on X.
He then sought to paint a series of pictures. “Scene I. Modi-Shah pluck out obscure MLA from Bihar to make him their rubber stamp National President. Scene II. Bankipur Assembly seat falls vacant, a seat BJP won by 52,000. Scene III. BJP announce candidate & then change. Scene IV. BJP whipped in bypoll.”
“Scene I” here is apparently a swipe at Nitin Nabin, who was elevated from being a Bihar MLA to the post of BJP national president and Rajya Sabha member. The election was necessitated after Nabin vacated the seat following his election to the Upper House.
Prashant Kishor vote count
Kishor took a commanding lead in the Bankipur assembly bypoll. As of 3:30 pm, he polled over 44,525 votes and was leading BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha by more than 12,800 votes.
The Bankipur bypoll drew much political attention despite being a single-seat contest.
It has been a BJP bastion for over three decades.Nitin Nabin represented the constituency undefeated for around two decades. Before him, his father, Nabin Kishore Prashad Sinha, won the seat three times.
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The contest became complicated for the BJP even before polling. The party initially fielded Abhishek Kumar Sinha, alias Bunty, but he withdrew his nomination. His father later said the decision was taken “to protect the honour of his parents”, who had been named in Bihar’s fodder scam.
The BJP subsequently nominated Neeraj Kumar Sinha.
The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) fielded Rekha Kumari, while Prashant Kishor entered the fray himself.
The bypoll comes months after the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), along with the Janata Dal (United), swept the Bihar Assembly elections. Since then, the state’s political landscape has changed. Nitin Nabin moved to the Rajya Sabha, JD(U)s Nitish Kumar resigned as Bihar CM and joined the Rajya Sabha. BJP leader Samrat Choudhary took over as chief minister.
Counting was also underway for bypolls in Datia in Madhya Pradesh and Manjalpur in Gujarat. In Datia, Congress candidate Ghanshyam Singh was leading by more than 6,000 votes.
