‘Beginning Of The End’ Says TMC As Prashant Kishor Leads In Bihar's Bankipur Bypoll

National spokesperson for the Trinamool Congress (TMC), Derek O'Brien stated that it is the "beginning of the end" for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Rajya Sabha member on Monday slammed the party for its performance in the Bankipur assembly bypoll of Bihar where Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was leading by a big margin votes at 3:30 pm. The remark was made in the wake of Prashant Kishor's margin in Bihar's Bankipur bypoll.

O'Brien wrote, using all-caps to press his point, on X, “BEGINNING OF THE END." He added, “Scene I. Modi-Shah pluck out obscure MLA from Bihar to make him their rubber stamp National President. Scene II. Bankipur Assembly seat falls vacant, a seat BJP won by 52,000. Scene III. BJP announce candidate & then change. Scene IV. BJP whipped in bypoll.”

This "Scene I" seems to be a jab at Nitin Nabin, who was promoted from Bihar MLA to Rajya Sabha member and BJP national president. Nabin's resignation from the position after being elected to the Upper House made the election necessary.

Kishor is expected to secure a victory in the Bankipur assembly by-election. He had been ahead of BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha by 12,800 plus votes as of 3.30 pm, when he had garnered more than 44,525 votes.

Though it was a single seat bypoll, the Bankipur bypoll received considerable attention from the political parties. For more than thirty years, it has been a stronghold of the BJP.Nitin Nabin was the only one who stood for election from the constituency without losing the seat for approximately 20 years. Nabin Kishore Prashad Sinha, his father, had previously won the seat three times.

The fight of the BJP became tougher even before the polls. A party's first nominee was Abhishek Kumar Sinha (Bunty); he stepped back shortly after. An allegation by his father that the decision was taken in the interest of protecting the honour of his parents, who had been involved in fodder scam in Bihar, was thrown up.His father then made the claim that it was taken to protect the “honour of his parents” who had been involved in fodder fraud in Bihar.

Later, the BJP nominated Neeraj Kumar Sinha and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) fielded Rekha Kumari, along with Prashant Kishor.