India, Aug. 4 -- The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered twin setbacks in assembly bypolls on Monday, losing its bastion in Bihar's Bankipur to poll-strategist-turned-politician Prashant Kishor and failing to win back its stronghold of Datia in Madhya Pradesh from the Congress.

The party won the Manjalpur seat in Gujarat.

In Bankipur, a constituency vacated by BJP chief Nitin Nabin who had held the seat since its inception in 2010, Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Kishor defeated the party's first-time candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha by 19,324 votes in a byelection widely seen as a prestige battle for the ruling party.

Making his electoral debut, Kishor secured 64,151 votes, Sinha polled 44,827, and Rashtriya Janata Dal candidate Rekha Ku...