India, Aug. 3 -- Jan Suraaj Party candidate Prashant Kishor on Monday widened his lead over BJP's Neeraj Kumar Sinha to 10,436 votes in the Bankipur assembly by-election in Bihar as the counting crossed the halfway mark, officials said.

Celebrations broke out at the Jan Suraaj Party headquarters and outside the counting centre at A N College here, with supporters dancing to the tunes of local songs and distributing sweets.

While political strategist-turned-politician Kishor bagged 35,713 votes, Sinha got 25,277 votes and RJD's Rekha Gupta stood third with 9,316 votes after 18 rounds of counting. A total of 31 rounds of counting will be held.

The counting of votes for the bypoll began at 8 am here on Monday, with all eyes on whether deb...