BJP ramps up campaign for Bankipur assembly bypolls

BJP national president and former Bankipur MLA Nitin Nabin, who concluded his second visit to Patna this week on Sunday, held a series of meetings with grassroots party workers before returning to Delhi, directing them to maximise voter outreach and ensure high polling day participation.

With the July 30 Bankipur assembly by-election entering its final stretch, the ruling BJP has intensified its campaign through extensive organisational mobilisation, voter outreach and community engagement, even as the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) has accused it of turning the contest into a prestige battle by deploying its entire organisational machinery.

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor during a roadshow for the Bankipur Assembly by-election campaign, in Patna on Sunday. (ANI Photo)

BJP national president and former Bankipur MLA Nitin Nabin, who concluded his second visit to Patna this week on Sunday, held a series of meetings with grassroots party workers before returning to Delhi, directing them to maximise voter outreach and ensure high polling day participation.

At his residence, Nabin met mandal presidents, ward councillors, youth and women wing leaders associated with the constituency and reviewed booth-level preparations. He instructed every functionary — from the state leadership to the tej pramukh, the party’s lowest organisational unit — to intensify door-to-door campaigning and connect with as many households as possible. He also stressed effective booth management and voter mobilisation on polling day.

“Nabin reviewed organisational preparations for the bypoll and assigned responsibilities to leaders at every level. He emphasised booth management, door-to-door campaigning and voter engagement to ensure maximum participation,” BJP Patna Mahanagar president Roop Narayan Mehta said.

The BJP has mounted an aggressive campaign over the past week, inducting several leaders from rival parties, particularly the Jan Suraaj Party, besides holding meetings with traders, professionals and other social groups. At a traders’ and eminent citizens’ convention on Sunday, Bihar BJP president Sanjay Saraogi claimed the business community was firmly backing the NDA and appealed to voters to ensure a decisive victory for BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha. He said the alliance was seeking votes on the basis of development, good governance and infrastructure created under the Narendra Modi-led Centre and the NDA government in Bihar.

The BJP candidate has also intensified his public outreach, conducting door-to-door campaigns across several wards and markets in the constituency. Accompanied by Bihar minister Ashok Choudhary during parts of the campaign, Sinha urged voters to support the NDA to sustain Bankipur’s development momentum.

“My greatest strength is the trust and affection of every family in Bankipur. I will continue to work with dedication for the constituency’s development and public welfare,” Sinha said while interacting with residents.

The BJP, however, has dismissed suggestions that the high-profile campaign reflects anxiety over the challenge posed by Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor, who is contesting the bypoll.

“The result is a foregone conclusion in favour of the BJP. The only question is whether we can improve upon Nitin Nabin’s winning margin of over 51,000 votes from the last election,” Mehta said.

Jan Suraaj, meanwhile, has sought to portray the bypoll as a referendum against the NDA government rather than merely a contest for one assembly seat.

Addressing supporters after a padyatra, Prashant Kishor alleged that the BJP had converted the election into a prestige battle by deploying thousands of workers and senior leaders.

“This is not merely an election to choose the MLA of Bankipur. It is an election to choose a chief minister better than Samrat Choudhary and to break the BJP’s arrogance,” Kishor said.

He claimed the BJP had mobilised nearly 6,000 workers from across Bihar and Delhi, with Union and state ministers, senior leaders and even the party’s national president repeatedly visiting the constituency. Despite this, he asserted, the BJP was headed for defeat.

The Bankipur bypoll was necessitated after Nitin Nabin vacated the seat following his election to the Rajya Sabha after becoming the BJP’s national president. The contest has assumed significance as the first major electoral test in Bihar since the November 2025 assembly elections, with both the NDA and the opposition viewing it as a key indicator of the political mood ahead of future electoral battles.

RJD’s nominee Rekha Gupta along with party leaders have intensified their mass interaction programme by visiting various localities each day to meet voters and also seek support of people, officials of the party said. Other INDIA bloc constituents including left parties have also extended support to the RJD nominee in the by-polls, said RJD officials.