PATNA, July 31 -- Around 34.30% of the 379,000 electorate exercised their franchise in the Bankipur assembly by-election on Thursday as polling passed off peacefully under tight security, despite a day marked by allegations and counter-allegations between the BJP and the Jan Suraaj Party (JSP), according to a press release from the office of the Bihar chief electoral officer (CEO). The bypoll, necessitated by the resignation of BJP national president Nitin Nabin following his election to the Rajya Sabha in April, witnessed a triangular contest among BJP debutant Neeraj Kumar Sinha, Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor, and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate Rekha Kumari, the runner-up in the 2025 Assembly election. Counting of votes will take place on August 3. Polling, held between 7 am and 6 pm, remained sluggish throughout the day, in line with the constituency's traditionally low voter participation. The turnout stood at 4.61% at 9 am, 11.50% at 11 am, 20.10% at 1 pm, 27.82% at 3 pm, 33.57% at 5 pm, before closing at 34.30%, nearly seven percentage points lower than the 41.35% turnout recorded in the 2025 Assembly election. Intermittent afternoon showers in Patna also dampened voter participation. According to the CEO's office, the constituency has 3,79,616 electors, including 2,00,060 men, 1,79,533 women and 23 third-gender voters, spread across 422 polling stations at 162 locations. A total of 25 candidates, including 23 men and two women, contested the election. Election authorities said polling remained peaceful. A total of 569 control units, 1,146 ballot units and 617 voter verifiable paper audit trail (VVPATs) were deployed. During mock polls, 15 ballot units, 10 control units and eight VVPATs were replaced due to technical issues, while 14 ballot units, seven control units and nine VVPATs were changed during polling. The Election Commission established 30 model polling stations, including one managed entirely by women personnel and another staffed exclusively by persons with disabilities. Live webcasting was carried out from all 422 polling stations. Three observers - general, expenditure and police - were deployed to oversee the election. The CEO's office said that the election control room received 59 complaints, all of which were promptly disposed of. Security arrangements included 14 companies of Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF), eight companies of the Bihar Special Armed Police (BSAP), 268 magistrates, 221 police officers, 998 district police personnel and 500 home guards. A total of 85 check-posts were established, while SDRF teams, bomb disposal squads, dog squads and Dial-112 emergency response vehicles remained on standby. As part of preventive enforcement, authorities seized 2,412.18 litres of liquor, narcotics worth about Rs.39,200 and Rs.3.95 lakh in cash during joint operations. Police initiated preventive action against 2,454 persons, executed 998 non-bailable warrants since the election was announced, and registered five cases related to violations of the Model Code of Conduct between July 2 and July 29. On polling day, 39 persons were arrested or detained, while social media platforms remained under round-the-clock monitoring to curb misinformation. Political temperatures, however, remained high throughout the day. Jan Suraaj founder Prashant Kishor, who is making his electoral debut, alleged that the police had detained more than 16 of his party workers without registering FIRs or making diary entries in an attempt to help the ruling BJP. Visiting the Jakkanpur police station on Wednesday night and later a polling booth near Gol Ghar on Thursday, Kishor claimed his party workers had been picked up wherever Jan Suraaj had set up assistance desks. "The police are acting like workers of the ruling party. They have detained our workers, who could have assisted voters on polling day, by misusing provisions that allow preventive detention for 24 hours without producing them before a court," he alleged. Kishor said that the detained workers had been shifted to a police station in Danapur and warned that if any of them suffered physical harm, responsibility would rest with the Jakkanpur police station in-charge and other officers concerned. He also criticised policing in the state, referring to the recent alleged encounter killing of Bharat Bhushan Tiwari in Ara and the handling of a NEET aspirant's death, alleging that the police were functioning under political pressure. Kishor said that the common man was now worried about police action. "It is this police raj, which the JSP is opposing," he added. The BJP rejected the allegations. Party national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain accused Kishor of threatening police personnel during his visit to the Jakkanpur police station on Wednesday night and obstructing public servants in the discharge of their duties. "He even carried a microphone into the police station so the entire interaction could be recorded for social media," Hussain alleged. The BJP, meanwhile, accused the Jan Suraaj Party of attempting to facilitate bogus voting. Former RJD spokesperson-turned-BJP leader Mrityunjay Tiwari claimed the JSP was trying to influence the electoral process through fake voters. "We have alerted all presiding officers at the 422 polling stations to thoroughly verify voters' credentials before allowing them to cast their votes, ensuring free, fair and transparent polling," he said. BJP state general secretary Nitin Abhishek also wrote to the returning officer, alleging that Jan Suraaj workers were attempting to cast fraudulent votes, thereby undermining the integrity of the election. Kishor dismissed the allegation, saying the BJP had "done something constructive for the first time" by asking the Election Commission to enforce stricter verification of EPIC cards to prevent fake voting. RJD candidate Rekha Kumari alleged irregularities in electronic voting machines at around 15-20 polling booths, claiming that the print of the party's lantern symbol was faint. She also complained that polling agents of the BJP and Jan Suraaj were wearing ribbons in party colours along with their identity cards and said the matter had been reported to the Election Commission. Among the prominent voters who exercised their franchise early in the day were Bihar cooperative minister Ram Kripal Yadav, former Union ministers Ravi Shankar Prasad and CP Thakur, and BJP MP Vivek Thakur. After casting his vote, BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha said, "We don't indulge in empty rhetoric; we talk about development. The opposition only indulges in baseless criticism." The BJP has held the seat continuously since 1995, when the constituency was known as Patna West. Nitin Nabin retained the seat for a fifth consecutive term in the 2025 Assembly election, defeating Rekha Kumari by a margin of over 50,000 votes....