3 min readPatnaJul 11, 2026 06:50 AM IST
First published on: Jul 10, 2026 at 09:13 PM IST
In an interesting turn of events ahead of the July 30 Bankipur bypoll, BJP candidate Abhishek Kumar Friday withdrew his nomination citing “family reasons” even as Jan Suraaj Party alleged that the candidate’s father was one of 75 people along with RJD chief Lalu Prasad in a fodder scam case. CBI website also confirmed this.
BJP, however, soon declaring its Mandal adhyaksh Neeraj Kumar Sinha as the new candidate for a bypoll shaping up to be a triangular contest with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP).
With JSP founder Prashant Kishor entering the fray, Bankipur is turning into a prestige battle for the BJP, especially since its national president Nitin Nabin has represented the seat five times since 2006. The constituency has been a BJP stronghold since 1995, when it was still called Patna West.
Even BJP leaders refrained from reacting to JSP’a allegations,a CBI Press rekease issued on 15 February, 2022, said the CBI had convicted 75 people including Rabindra Prasad (father of Abhishek Kumar who has now withdrawn from Bankipur race), RJD chuef Lalu Prasad and others.
in a fodder scam case. During the fodder scam, he was the manager of Magadh Chemical Corporation. He had been made an accused in the 139 crore rupee scam case. The CBI had filed 3 charge sheets in this case between 2001 and 2003. The CBI made them accused after examining 575 witnesses and 4,200 documents.
BJP spokesperson Kuntal Krishna, however, told The Indian Express:” Officially speaking, Abhishek jee cited his personal reasons and requested party that he will not be able to contest this byelection. Honouring sentiment of a grass root worker party accepted his request and fielded another grass root worker.”
The new candidate, Neeraj Kumar Sinha, 32, is currently the Mandal adhyaksh of Narendra Bharti Mandal, named after his uncle, who was associated with the Bharatiya Jan Sangh. Sinha, serving a second term as Mandal president, was also vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha. A graduate from Patna, he has been a BJP member since the age of 12.
An overwhelmed Sinha told reporters: “I had never imagined that a booth level worker like me could be given such an honour. I’m overwhelmed and confident of my victory by a huge margin.”
Earlier in the day, Abhishek Kumar alias Abhishek Bunty, who had filed his nomination Thursday and later shared a public platform with senior leaders, said: “I would say with all humility that I would not be able to contest elections because of family issues. I will continue to work for the party. I’m thankful to the party for considering me for the Bankipur bypoll.”
BJP sources added Abhishek Kumar, who had studied only up to Class 10, “looked a weak candidate as compared to RJD’s Rekha Gupta, a graduate, and highly qualified JSP candidate Prashant Kishor”. A senior BJP leader said: “We stick to our stand of giving tickets to common workers. Second, the party went with an upper caste Kayastha candidate, a tradition we have maintained from Prasad days (1977) to Naveen Kishore Sinha (1995 to 2005) to Nitin Nabin (2006 to 2026).”
New BJP candiate Neeraj Kunar Sinha (left) with BJP state president Sanjay Sarogi (Special Arrangement) 
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