Counting of votes for the Bankipur Assembly bypoll in Bihar began at 8 am on Monday, with the spotlight firmly on Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, who is contesting his maiden election and seeking to wrest the BJP stronghold.
A former election strategist who launched the Jan Suraaj Party a few years ago, Kishor has made the high-profile bypoll a key test of his political appeal ahead of the 2027 Bihar Assembly elections. Victory in Bankipur would hand the fledgling party its first major electoral breakthrough.
The by-election was necessitated after BJP national president Nitin Nabin resigned from the seat in April following his election to the Rajya Sabha. Nabin had represented the constituency for five consecutive terms and won the seat in the 2025 Assembly elections by defeating the RJD's Rekha Gupta by more than 50,000 votes.
The BJP has fielded youth wing leader Neeraj Kumar Sinha, while the RJD has once again nominated Rekha Gupta.
"The counting of votes for the Bankipur by-election began amid tight security arrangements," an official said.
The July 30 bypoll recorded a voter turnout of 34.30%, down from 41.45% in the last Assembly elections. A total of 26 candidates are in the fray.
The BJP has retained the constituency since 1995, when it was known as Patna West, making the bypoll a crucial contest for Kishor as he attempts to make his electoral debut by ending the party's three-decade dominance in the seat.
The counting of votes for the by-elections to the Manjalpur Assembly constituency in Gujarat and the Datia Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh also began on Monday morning amid tight security.
The Manjalpur bypoll, held on July 30, recorded a voter turnout of 37.5 per cent and was necessitated by the death of senior BJP MLA and former Gujarat minister Yogesh Patel on June 2 following a prolonged illness.
The counting exercise commenced at 8 am on the premises of Bhavan's School in Vadodara's Makarpura area as per Election Commission guidelines, with Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) being taken up for counting under multi-layered security arrangements.
The by-election witnessed a direct contest between the ruling BJP and the Opposition Congress. The BJP fielded former Vadodara Municipal Corporation councillor Satish Govindbhai Patel, while the Congress nominated its Gujarat vice-president and former minister Bhikhabhai Rabari.
Polling was conducted peacefully at 260 polling stations across 62 locations. The constituency recorded a turnout of 37.5 per cent, down from 60.15 per cent in the 2022 Assembly elections.
Yogesh Patel, an eight-term BJP legislator, represented the Raopura Assembly constituency in Vadodara five times between 1990 and 2007 before shifting to the newly created Manjalpur seat after delimitation. He went on to win the Manjalpur seat in 2012, 2017 and 2022, completing eight consecutive Assembly victories over 36 years.
Counting of votes for the Datia Assembly bypoll in Madhya Pradesh also commenced at 8 am under tight security at the Polytechnic College, beginning with postal ballots before moving to EVMs.
A total of 21 tables, including 20 for EVM counting, were set up for the exercise, an official said.
The bypoll was necessitated after a Delhi court in April sentenced Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti to three years' imprisonment in a cheating case, leading to the termination of his Assembly membership.
The Congress fielded Ghanshyam Singh, while the BJP nominated Ashutosh Tiwari. Nineteen other candidates are also in the fray.
Voting for the July 30 bypoll recorded a turnout of 71.44 per cent. Bharti had defeated BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh home minister Narottam Mishra by more than 7,700 votes in the 2023 Assembly elections.
In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the BJP has 164 MLAs, the Congress 64 and the Bharat Adivasi Party one legislator.
While the bypoll outcome is unlikely to affect the stability of the BJP government in the state, political observers believe the result carries wider significance amid recent student protests and the resignation of former Union education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Analysts also see it as an indicator of the political standing of both the BJP and the Congress ahead of the 2028 Assembly elections. The Datia bypoll is also the first electoral test for newly appointed BJP state president Hemant Khandelwal.
