Bhopal / Patna / Ahmedabad4 minutes ago
Voting is set to begin at 7 AM today for a total of three assembly seats in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat. By-elections are to be held for Datia in MP, Bankipur in Bihar, and Manjalpur in Gujarat.
BJP has given the ticket to Ashutosh Tiwari in Datia, replacing MP’s former Home Minister Narottam Mishra. Meanwhile, Jan Suraj’s Prashant Kishor is going to contest his first election from Patna’s Bankipur assembly seat. However, Prashant’s party did not win a single seat in the 2025 Bihar assembly elections.
Triangular contest in Bankipur
Prashant Kishor held a roadshow in Patna, the capital of Bihar, on Tuesday.
The contest for Bihar’s Bankipur seat is quite interesting. Here, the contest is between BJP Yuva Morcha leader Neeraj Kumar Sinha, Jan Suraj Party’s Prashant Kishor, and Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Rekha Gupta. This seat became vacant after BJP’s five-time MLA and party’s national president Nitin Nabin was elected as a Rajya Sabha MP in April.
Prashant Kishor has been continuously in discussion on this seat. He has campaigned in almost every street and locality. Kishor has called this election a referendum on the performance of the NDA government. He has specifically targeted Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, whom BJP made CM after Nitish Kumar’s departure. Meanwhile, Nitin Naveen also campaigned in his constituency and assured voters that Bankipur would remain his priority despite new responsibilities.
Challenge for BJP and Congress in Datia
On July 13, after Ashutosh Tiwari was announced as the BJP candidate for the by-election, Narottam Mishra became emotional on stage.
In Madhya Pradesh’s Datia seat, BJP’s Ashutosh Tiwari is contesting for the first time, while Congress’s Kunwar Ghanshyam Singh is in the fray for the seventh time. This seat became vacant after Congress MLA Rajendra Bharti was disqualified on April 2. Bharti was disqualified under Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and Article 191(1)(e) of the Constitution, after being convicted in a bank fraud case.
Both parties in Datia may face internal opposition. BJP gave the ticket to Ashutosh Tiwari instead of former Home Minister Narottam Mishra, after which protests took place there. During these protests in July, several workers were booked for allegedly attacking government employees, vandalism, and violating the code of conduct. Following this, Narottam Mishra himself had to come forward and appeal to his supporters to support Tiwari.
According to media reports, there was also a tug-of-war over tickets in Congress. Disqualified MLA Rajendra Bharti was seeking a ticket for his family, while senior leader Avdhesh Nayak, who left BJP before the 2023 assembly elections, was also staking his claim.
BJP and Congress face-to-face in Manjalpur
The Manjalpur seat, located in Vadodara, Gujarat, became vacant after the demise of BJP MLA Yogesh Patel. Yogesh Patel had been an MLA since 1990 and had won elections a total of eight times. He also served as the Pro-tem Speaker of the Assembly and a Minister of State in 2022. For this seat, the BJP has nominated Satish Patel, while the Congress has fielded former minister Bhikhabhai Rabari.
This seat is considered a traditional stronghold of the BJP. This time too, the BJP is trying to maintain its lead. However, there is resentment among local leaders regarding the candidate, which is why a large team of top BJP leaders has been deployed to this seat. Union Ministers, the Chief Minister, the Deputy Chief Minister, other ministers, the state president, and other leaders also met with local leaders.
