PATNA, July 10 -- A day after Abhishek Kumar Sinha filed his nomination for the Bankipur assembly by-elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Friday replaced him, saying he had opted out of the race due to "family reasons".

Neeraj Kumar Sinha, a 32-year-old, has been named as the new BJP candidate from Bankipur, formerly known as Patna West before the 2008 delimitation, which has remained a BJP bastion for more than three decades.

The party did not explain why Kumar was replaced less than 30 hours after filing his nomination papers.

On X, the Bihar BJP released a copy of Kumar's letter thanking the party leadership for reposing faith in him before requesting permission to step away from the contest due to "family reasons".

The s...