Bankipur votes in critical bypoll: Can Prashant Kishor flip BJP bastion?

Voters at a polling booth in Patna on Friday for the Bankipur bypoll. 5 min readPatnaJul 30, 2026 09:32 PM IST First published on: Jul 30, 2026 at 09:32 PM IST A government servant who cast her vote at a thinly attended polling booth in Patna on Friday for the Bankipur bypoll refused to reveal her preference but observed with a tone of resignation: “Sab ke aankhon par BJP ki patti padhi hai (Everyone is wearing BJP blindfolds).” Yet, just a few kilometres away, a voter was heard repeating “jai Jan Suraaj, jai Prashant” as he entered a booth in a locality with a substantial Muslim population. As voters trickled into polling booths on voting day for the Bankipur bypoll in Bihar, with turnout at 34.2% as of 8.30 pm, all three key contenders — the BJP’s Neeraj Kumar Sinha, Rashtriya Janata Dal