Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was on course to win the Bankipur assembly by-election in Bihar, India, ending what the report described as a 31-year BJP dominance of the seat. In the final stage of vote counting, published on August 4, 2026, Kishor was leading the BJP candidate by about 15,864 votes.

The seat fell vacant in April after BJP national president Nitin Nabin was elected to the Rajya Sabha. Nabin had represented Bankipur continuously since 2010 and won the 2025 assembly election by a margin of 51,936 votes. Before the 2008 delimitation, his late father, Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, represented the area then known as Patna West from 1995 to 2005.

Kishor said Jan Suraaj would not form a political alliance and would instead ally with Bihar’s ordinary people. He thanked supporters, including people from the BJP, RJD and Congress. During campaigning, a remark attributed to former Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad that even a dog or cat nominated by the BJP would win circulated widely; he later denied making it. A video of BJP workers preparing laddus during counting also prompted online mockery after Kishor took the lead.