By-elections are to be held on 30th July i.e. three assembly seats in the country, which include the high-profile seat of Bankipur in Bihar, Manjalpur seat in Gujarat and the most talked about Datia assembly seat in Madhya Pradesh. In this, Bankipur Assembly seat has become vacant after the resignation of BJP National President and Rajya Sabha MP Nitin Nabin, where voting will be held on Thursday.
On this seat, 3.79 lakh voters will vote at 422 polling stations from 7 am to 6 pm. A total of 422 polling stations have been set up here and 14 companies of central forces have been deployed for security. Apart from this, Bihar Police and Home Guard personnel have also been deployed in large numbers. There are a total of 25 candidates in the fray for this seat and the main contest is between BJP’s Neeraj Sinha, RJD’s Rekha Gupta and Jansuraj’s candidate Prashant Kishore.
Bankipur seat has been with BJP for 3 decades
This seat has been with BJP for the last three decades. In the year 1995, Naveen Kishore Sinha had won this seat for the first time. After this, BJP has never received defeat here. Naveen Kishore Sinha had been MLA from here for four consecutive terms. After his death in December 2005, his son Nitin Nabin reached the Assembly for the first time by winning from this seat in the by-election held in April 2006. Since then, Nitin Nabin has been continuously winning from here. He had also won the elections of 2025 and also became a minister for the first time in Nitish cabinet. After becoming the national president of BJP, Nitin Nabin also became a Rajya Sabha MP. After that, the contest in the by-election on the seat vacated by his resignation looks very interesting.
Earlier Abhishek Kumar Bunty had become BJP candidate.
BJP had earlier declared Abhishek Kumar Bunty as its candidate for this seat, but after it was revealed that Abhishek Bunty’s family background was tainted, BJP changed its candidate and made Neeraj Sinha its candidate. In the 2025 elections, BJP’s Nitin Nabin got a total of 98,299 votes in Bankipur, while RJD candidate Rekha Gupta got 46,363 votes.
2 MLAs who won from Bankipur have been CM of Bihar
Talking about the background of this seat, it has been very historical. The two MLAs who won from here have also become the Chief Minister of Bihar. Then its name used to be Patna West. In the 1962 assembly elections, Krishna Ballabh Sahay of Congress had won from here, who became the fourth Chief Minister of Bihar. Then in the 1967 assembly elections, Mahamaya Prasad Sinha of Jan Kranti Dal defeated KB Sahay. While being an MLA from a party with only 13 MLAs, Mahamaya Prasad Sinha took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar, leaving behind CM candidates like Karpoori Thakur. After the delimitation in 2008, the name of Patna West was changed to Bankipur.
BJP-Congress clash on Manjalpur seat
Manjalpur seat of Gujarat had become vacant after the death of BJP MLA Yogesh Patel, due to which by-election is being held here. BJP has made Satish Patel its candidate from here, while Congress has fielded former minister Bhikhabhai Rabari. Actually, Manjalpur is part of Vadodara district and it came into existence after the delimitation of 2008. The number of voters here is more than 2 lakh 60 thousand. BJP’s Yogesh Patel had won this seat in the Gujarat Assembly elections held in the year 2022. He had secured more than 1 lakh 20 thousand votes.
Why is by-election being held on Datia seat?
Datia Assembly seat of Madhya Pradesh had become vacant after the membership of Congress’s Rajendra Bharti ended in the month of April. There is a tough contest between BJP and Congress on this seat also. BJP has made Ashutosh Tiwari its candidate from here, while Ghanshyam Singh is in the fray from Congress.
In fact, a Delhi court had sentenced Rajendra Bharti to 3 years in a fraud case, after which his assembly membership was cancelled. Interestingly, in the 2023 assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Congress’s Rajendra Bharti had defeated senior BJP leader Narottam Mishra by more than 7500 votes as a candidate.
Also read: ‘Insulting ‘Vande Mataram’ now a criminal offence, bill passed in Rajya Sabha
Leave a Reply