PK’s Bankipur win has message for BJP: Core voter base can change its mind
In Bihar, the defeat will hurt party chief Nitin Nabin, who had long held Bankipur; in MP, BJP pays the price for shortchanging established leader, in a bid for generational change.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in conversation with BJP president Nitin Nabin. (ANI Photo) The BJP’s loss in the by-elections to the Bankipur and Datia Assembly seats in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh, respectively, reflects two fault lines that should worry the party. One, that the BJP’s core support base may be showing cracks, and that its attempts at a generational shift are meeting strong internal resistance.
In private, NDA allies talked of the results being a warning that voters, even in BJP bastions, “could not be taken for granted”, and that “arrogance of power would be punished” by them.
A senior leader of the JD(U), the BJP’s ally in power in both Bihar and the Centre, said the Bankipur result was “a strong message” to the BJP as well as the NDA. “We have lost this election just eight months after scoring a landslide victory in Bihar, and four months after (JD-U supremo) Nitish Kumar was replaced by (the BJP’s) Samrat Chaudhary,” the leader said, underlining that “it was the first election the NDA faced in Bihar after the BJP took the upper hand in the state”.
A senior BJP leader and former office-bearer said: “Both Datia and Bankipur gave a clear message: even our own core support base can change their minds. They won’t simply accept what we say and offer. They are not blind captives to our narrative. It’s a serious message for the party, not just in Bihar and Madhya Pradesh but at the national level. The voter wanted to ensure that the party got a punch on its face.”
Jan Suraaj Party chief Prashant Kishor celebrates with supporters in Patna, Monday. (PTI)
A BJP source said the defeats were also a loss of face for those seen as wielding political clout in the party. In Datia, the party’s strong local leader Narottam Mishra, around whom the politics of the region has revolved for the last two decades, was replaced. Mishra, who lost the 2023 Assembly polls but expected the ticket, and had been preparing for the bypoll, made his displeasure public, before being reined in. However, his hand is being seen in the defeat of the young Ashutosh Tiwari who was picked by the BJP as its Datia candidate.
The Bankipur defeat is more resounding as it is a seat that has been with the BJP since 1995, and was vacated by its new national president Nitin Nabin, who had won it five times on the trot, from 2005 till the Assembly elections late last year. Between 1995 and 2005, Bankipur – formerly called Patna West – was held by Nabin’s father Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha.
After the 19,000-plus-vote defeat, an MP of ally Lok Janshakti Party asked: “How can a senior party (BJP) leader say that kutta-billi could win on a BJP ticket?” On the campaign trail, Jan Suraaj leader Prashant Kishor had jumped on the alleged remarks by the senior BJP leader to paint it as an example of the party’s “arrogance”. However, the BJP has accused the Opposition of distorting the comments.
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