PATNA: A BJP delegation on Tuesday met the Election Commission and filed a complaint against Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor, alleging that he was spending crores of rupees on a social media campaign for the Bankipur by-poll.
Kishor is making his electoral debut by contesting the Bankipur by-poll and is pitted against BJP’s Neeraj Kumar Sinha and RJD’s Rekha Gupta.
The delegation included Bihar Education Minister Mithilesh Tiwari, MLA Jivesh Mishra, MLC Janak Ram and BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain.
BJP leaders alleged that election rules were being violated through large-scale spending and demanded an investigation.
After meeting officials at the state election office in Patna, Hussain told reporters that Kishor was “trying to influence public opinion on social media using money”.
He alleged that crores of rupees were being spent lavishly on election campaigning.
“Social media influencers are being paid lakhs of rupees for each video and huge sums are being spent on election campaigning through several anonymous companies,” he claimed.
The BJP leader said the Election Commission allows a candidate to spend a maximum of Rs 40 lakh during an election, but alleged that the limit was not being followed by JSP candidate Kishor.
He also alleged that fake social media accounts were being used to create confusion among voters.
The BJP urged the Election Commission and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to investigate all such financial transactions and the alleged shell companies.
Meanwhile, Mithilesh Tiwari alleged that abusive language was being promoted through social media.
He claimed that before the 2025 Assembly election, Kishor had said that if Nitish Kumar's party won even 25 seats, he would quit politics.
“Kishor has entered the electoral fray on someone's ‘contract’ and that his objective was to benefit the RJD,” he alleged, claiming that after losing the by-election, the JSP leader would leave Bihar and go to Punjab.