BJP Nominares Abhishek Kumar for Bankipur By-Poll Against Prashant Kishor

The BJP has nominated Abhishek Kumar for the Bankipur assembly by-poll. He will contest against Jan Suraaj leader Prashant Kishor in this key seat. The party is deploying senior leaders for extensive public outreach efforts. BJP aims to secure its stronghold, which it has held since 1995. The RJD has fielded Rekha Gupta as its candidate for the election.

New Delhi: With the entry of Jan Suraaj leader Prashant Kishor in the by-poll contest for Bankipur assembly constituency in Bihar, the BJP has decided to go full throttle to win this seat.

On Tuesday, the party announced Abhishek Kumar as the party candidate from the seat. Kumar is presently the state vice president of BJP Yuva Morcha and belongs to the Kayastha community.

The by-poll was necessitated after Nitin Nabin resigned as Bankipur MLA following his elevation as BJP's national president and election to the Rajya Sabha.

Bankipur seat in Patna town is one of BJP's strongholds and the party has not lost the seat since 1995. Nabin himself won the seat five times. BJP always secured around 60% votes on the seat while the leading opposition candidates in various elections hovered around 30% votes.

RJD has fielded Rekha Gupta as the party candidate. Gupta contested the 2025 elections and lost to Nabin by almost 52,000 votes.

Abhishek Kumar will file his nomination on July 9 in the presence of BJP president Nitin Nabin. Before the nomination, the BJP has already deployed senior leaders dividing the entire assembly constituency into 40 clusters with leaders assigned to look after the public outreach in each sector.

BJP leaders told ET that there is a trend of lower polling during the by-polls. The party wants to change this in Bankipur.

On Sunday, after Kishor announced his candidature, the state BJP core committee met in Patna in the presence of Bihar CM Samrat Choudhary and state BJP president Sanjay Saraogi. Saraogi said every voter should be reached out to by BJP workers in their homes over the next few days.

"Our leaders and workers work 24x7 and this is routine work. Bankipur has witnessed so much development -- from better road infrastructure and flyover to metro connectivity -- under the NDA government," BJP Bihar president Sanjay Saraogi, told ET.