Bihar's Bankipur By-Poll: A Test of Organisational Strength for JSP and BJP

At 7 am, Pawan Yadav is already out on the streets of Bankipur. His day rarely ends before 2 am, after the final booth reports are submitted and a review meeting usually chaired by Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) chief Prashant Kishor wraps up. A few kilometres away, BJP volunteer Rahul Pandey follows a different routine but works equally long hours. He spends his day organising meetings, coordinating with senior leaders, going door to door, and ensuring every assigned booth remains covered. Both camps approached the July 30 bypolls differently but left no stone unturned to ensure victory for their respective candidates – Kishor of the JSP and Neeraj Kumar Sinha of the BJP. As Bankipur witnessed one of Bihar’s most closely watched bypolls in recent years — the results will be announced on Monday along with Datia in Madhya Pradesh and Manjalpur in Gujarat — the real contest was not confined to campaign stages. It was fought by hundreds of political workers, consultants and volunteers who spent weeks trying to persuade, organise and mobilise voters. For many, this was more than just another election. They were working either for or against Kishor, who made his electoral debut in the bypoll. For Kishor, it was the first test of whether the organisation he built through his statewide padyatra could transform his outfit into an electoral force. The JSP was formally launched on October 2, 2024, and contested all 243 seats in the 2025 Bihar Assembly elections. The party failed to win a single seat, while its Bankipur candidate secured less than 5% of the vote. For the BJP, the stakes are equally high. Bankipur has been the party’s bastion since the constituency was created following the 2008 delimitation. BJP national president Nitin Nabin represented the seat for five consecutive terms before vacating it after being elected to the Rajya Sabha . His father, Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, had represented the adjoining Patna West constituency before him, giving the family a political presence in the area spanning decades. The bypoll is also the party’s first electoral test since Samrat Choudhary became Bihar’s first BJP chief minister in April. The party fielded grassroots leader Sinha and deployed around 40 star campaigners, along with more than a thousand workers from across the state. Yet, beneath the speeches and rallies, the campaign boiled down to two very different political machines. Building from scratch Pawan , a resident of Muzaffarpur, has worked with the JSP’s professional team for the past three years. After the party downsized its campaign staff following the setback in the 2025 Assembly elections, he was among around 100 employees retained as fellows. He was sent to Bankipur the day the bypoll was announced. Pawan was assigned four booths and operated from what the party calls an “adda” — a neighbourhood-level campaign hub where booth strategy was planned and monitored. “There hasn’t been a single Sunday off,” he says. For nearly a month, the team worked from morning until late into the night. During the final phase of campaigning, most meals came from the party office. Before that, workers ate wherever they could find food. Around 250 professionals worked on the campaign. Separate teams handled women voters, caste outreach and booth management. The biggest challenge, Pawan says, was not finding supporters. “It was converting supporters into workers.” The party wanted every booth committee to have around 20 local volunteers. Most booths could gather only seven to ten. “Many of them were ordinary people like shopkeepers, not political workers,” he says. That, he believes, exposed the party’s biggest organisational hurdle. It had supporters, but not enough people willing to spend weeks campaigning on the ground. Asked what happens after the results, Pawan says those hired specifically for the bypoll may not continue if the party loses. If it wins, some could be retained for future bypolls. Either way, he says, “Everyone just wants a few days of rest. The boys are exhausted.” Cadre already in place If the JSP relied on professionals, the BJP depended on an organisation built over decades. “Shayad hi koi zila hoga jaha se party ke log nhi aaye ho (There would hardly be any district of the state from where workers have not come),” a BJP worker says. “Everyone is in Bankipur.” The claim reflects the scale of the deployment. The BJP assigned MLAs responsibility of clusters of booths across the constituency’s more than 420 polling stations. During the final phase of campaigning, it also set up “booth sahayata kendras (booth help desks)” to coordinate booth-level mobilisation. Unlike the JSP, the BJP did not have to build a network from scratch. It simply activated one that already existed. Rahul Pandey was among those deployed on the ground. Initially assigned to assist the party’s professional social media team, he was later shifted to fieldwork. His responsibilities included organising public meetings, going door to door, and assisting senior leaders during campaign events. Was this election tougher than previous ones? Rahul says it was. “There was some dissatisfaction among people from my community over the UGC issue,” he says. “But a person may be upset with his own family. Where else will he go?” According to him, around a thousand BJP workers camped in the constituency during the campaign. The party arranged accommodation and food for many who came from outside Patna, while others made their own arrangements. Two organisations, one test For election observers, Bankipur became a contest between two organisational models. The JSP attempted to run a tightly managed campaign driven by professionals, data teams and booth fellows. The BJP leaned on its long-established cadre network and organisational depth. Polling on July 30 recorded a turnout of 34.24%, lower than the 41.45% recorded in the 2025 Assembly election. The day also witnessed allegations from both sides. Kishor accused the police of detaining his supporters, while the BJP alleged that the JSP had brought in fake voters. Police intervened after workers from both parties clashed in the Shri Krishnapuri area. Independent election observers say the lower turnout is unlikely to favour the JSP, which had hoped to increase participation in one of Patna’s lowest-turnout constituencies. Even as the results trickle in on Monday, the bypoll has already revealed something deeper about Bihar’s politics. Winning an election is not only about attracting crowds or delivering speeches. It is about building an organisation that can knock on every door, manage every booth and persuade every undecided voter. That battle in Bankipur was fought not by the leaders on the stage, but by the workers on the ground.