Voters in the Bankipur Assembly bypoll found Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar on the EVM, but they were not Bihar’s veteran leaders. Their namesakes, contesting as independents, failed to cross the 150-vote mark and lost their deposits.
While the spotlight was on Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor breaching the BJP bastion with 64,151 votes, Independent candidate Lalu Prasad Yadav could garner just 81, a vote share of 0.06 per cent.
Another Independent candidate, Nitish Kumar, fared a bit better with 149 votes, which amounted to 0.11 per cent of the total votes polled.
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Both lost their security deposits as the Election Commission regulations stipulate that candidates failing to secure a minimum of one-sixth of the total valid votes polled would have their deposits redirected to the treasury.
A total of 25 candidates were in the fray for the hotly contested seat, including eight Independents.
Kishor created history on his electoral debut when he defeated Neeraj Kumar, a low-key BJP youth wing leader who was hurriedly fielded by the party after its candidate Abhishek “Bunty” pulled out at the eleventh hour citing “family reasons”.
The celebrated poll strategist won by a margin of 19,324 votes.
For the bypoll, necessitated by the resignation of BJP chief Nitin Nabin after his elevation to the Rajya Sabha, the RJD had reposed its faith in Rekha Gupta.
She had lost to Nabin by more than 50,000 votes in the 2025 Assembly election. This time, she lost after garnering 14,273 votes.
The constituency, with nearly 3.8 lakh voters, recorded a turnout of 34.30 per cent in polling held on July 30, significantly lower than the 41.45 per cent turnout recorded during the 2025 Assembly election.
