PATNA, Aug. 4 -- Bankipur, largely an urban seat carved out of Patna West, seems to show that the people might have voted for a political change. This reflects that voters not merely revolted against the BJP, which has maintained a monopoly in the constituency since 2008, they have shown they can shun their party-caste-community loyalties. Also, some feel internal dissension in the BJP led to the ruling party losing its pocket borough. Jan Suraaj Party founder Prasant Kishor, who emerged victorious, has been crusading against all political parties of the state, asserting that they have kept voters captive and Bihar backward. His party drew a blank in 2025 elections despite his high-intensity campaign. He specially focused on "reformative and people-oriented politics" as he announced to contest the bypoll in uppercaste-dominated Bankipur. As the NEET leak protests swept across India -- with Bihar witnessing protesters-police clashes and hundreds of student agitators being booked -- his campaign benefitted immensely. Political observers in Bihar feel that the Bankipur victory is a timely and much-needed boost to the Jan Suraaj as Kishor won by over 19,000 votes and polled about 45% of the overall votes in a constituency that BJP president Nitin Nabin represented and that the party hadn't lost since 1995 (while it was part of a previous assembly segment). DM Diwakar, senior poll observer and former director of the AN Sinha Institute of Social Sciences, Patna, said that the Bankipur by-election should not be seen just through the prism of the people's voting pattern or that it has been BJP's stronghold alone. "It is the people of the constituency who fought this election and they have won. They were seeking change and finally they have shown the BJP that they can bring a change. The JSP founder's talk of transformative changes to develop Bihar like weeding out corruption, reforms in the education sector, his promise to check migration by generating employment in Bihar and overall his promise of doing clean politics successfully connected with voters," Diwakar said. The element of internal dissension within the saffron party - which saw it replacing its first announced candidate Abhishek Kumar Bunty, a comparatively well-known face, with Neeraj Kumar Sinha, a party worker with little fame-also saw its connection with voters depleting as the election progressed. Then, observers feel, it was compounded by arrogant comments made by some BJP leaders that must have tilted the scale in favour of the BJP. "There was certain dissension within the BJP's internal organisation over the candidate nomination as was obvious when a declared candidate was pulled off and replaced with a new face. Some BJP leaders justified it by saying that the seat can't be snatched away from the party. Such a hauteur dispelled voters," said Nawal Kishore Chaudhary, a former principal of Patna college and resident of central Patna. Many also see the Bankipur upset for BJP as a setback for party's top leadership, including BJP national president Nitin Nabin and state chief minister Samrat Choudhary. Choudhary, though, congratulated Kishor and his party for the bypoll victory in his X statement. "The Bankipur bypoll result is a setback not only for BJP national president Nabin but also for CM Choudhary as it was the first major poll where his stakes were high after becoming the chief minister. Now, the detractors of CM Choudhary may get more emboldened, including those within the state BJP. The bypoll result could diminish the CM's clout within the BJP both in Bihar and at the central level," said Nawal Kishore Choudhary. BJP spokesperson Prem Ranjan Patel alleged the RJD and JSP had a tacit understanding, a reason why RJD's own traditional voters mainly 'Muslim-Yadavs" shifted towards Kishore leading to his win. "The RJD had made an understanding with the JSP and it helped Kishor to get big votes of Yadavs and Muslims," he said. Patel's allegation unwittingly captures how voters might voted free of their caste and community loyalty. Bankipur is considered an uppercaste dominated constituency, with around 15% kayasths and sizeable number of Yadavs, Muslims and other social groups....