Tejashwi Yadav and Pawan Singh's Convoys Come Face to Face on Patna Road as Bankipur Campaigning Ends
Digital desk
Both convoys, trailed by crowds of supporters on either side, found themselves converging at the same point during their respective roadshows just before campaigning officially ended. The moment briefly created a stir on the street, drawing the attention of everyone present, and quickly became a talking point once footage of the face-off began circulating.
Voting in Bankipur is scheduled for July 30, with results to be declared after counting on August 3. All parties pushed hard in the campaign's final stretch. The BJP's road to fielding a candidate wasn't entirely smooth — the party first named Abhishek Kumar Sinha (Bunty), who filed his nomination on July 9 before withdrawing shortly after, citing family and other reasons. The party then turned to Neeraj Kumar Sinha, who filed his nomination on July 13.
The RJD has once again fielded Rekha Gupta, who argues that Bankipur — a Vaishya-dominated seat — will back her this time around. Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor is contesting the seat himself, framing the bypoll as more than just a single assembly contest — he describes it as a referendum on Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary's performance so far. His entry has turned the race into a three-cornered contest.
Bankipur is one of 14 assembly seats in Patna district and has long carried outsized political significance, with 3,79,402 registered voters. The seat has been a BJP stronghold for three decades — known as Patna West until a 2008 delimitation exercise renamed it Bankipur. Naveen Kishore Sinha first won the seat in 1995, and after his death, his son Nitin Nabin took over, winning every election from 2006 to 2025. In the last Assembly election, Nabin secured 98,299 votes against Rekha Gupta's 46,363, with Jan Suraaj's Vandana Kumari finishing third. The seat fell vacant after Nabin resigned his MLA post following his appointment as BJP's national president.
With campaigning now over, all eyes turn to July 30 — the real question being whether the BJP holds onto its three-decade stronghold, or whether Bankipur's voters send a different political message this time.
