Bypolls: Congress leads in MP’s Datia, Prashant Kishor in Bihar

Tight Contest in Madhya Pradesh’s Datia

The contest for the Datia assembly by-election in Madhya Pradesh has tightened as Congress candidate Ghanshyam Singh took a narrow lead over BJP’s Ashutosh Tiwari after the fourth round of counting on Monday. According to the latest data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), Ghanshyam Singh has secured 17,290 votes, leading by a small margin of 833 votes. BJP’s Ashutosh Tiwari is currently trailing with 16,457 votes. Speaking to ANI, Ghanshyam expressed confidence that his lead would widen as counting progresses. “In the third round, I’m ahead by 33 votes, and in the fourth, we’ll have a lead of eight or nine hundred. I’ll be ahead by more than a thousand, and this lead will grow with each round,” he said. The Congress candidate further said, “No, he (Narottam Mishra) did not support me. But yes, many of his workers were more upset with the BJP. They helped me quietly. Narottam Mishra did not help me.” This marks a significant shift in the trend from the first round of counting, where the BJP candidate held a lead of over 1,100 votes.

Prashant Kishor Maintains Lead in Bihar’s Bankipur

Meanwhile, in Bihar’s Bankipur (AC-182), Prashant Kishor of the Jan Suraaj Party maintained a steady lead over his rivals as counting entered the sixth round. According to the latest data from the Election Commission of India (ECI), Kishor has secured 11,603 votes, leading by a margin of 3,451 votes. Earlier, Prashant Kishor said he was not looking for a “safe seat” and had deliberately chosen to contest from Bankipur, a long-standing BJP bastion, to send a message that Bihar’s voters should move beyond caste and religion while exercising their franchise. He had also urged people to stop voting out of fear for either Lalu Prasad Yadav or the BJP.

Contesting from a BJP Stronghold

Speaking to ANI, Kishor said he had consciously avoided contesting from a politically safe constituency. Bankipur, which falls under the Patna Sahib Lok Sabha constituency, has long been considered a BJP stronghold. The seat has been represented by the BJP’s incumbent National President Nitin Nabin since 2010 and, before him, by his father, Nabin Kishore Prasad Sinha, making it one of the party’s most established urban bastions in Bihar. “When people start their electoral politics, they look for safe seats for themselves… I am doing the opposite because I am telling the people of Bihar that if Bihar is to change, they must vote beyond caste and religion. They must stop voting out of fear of Lalu for BJP, or fear of BJP for Lalu. To prove the point I am explaining to the people of Bihar, I am contesting from a place where votes should not be sought in the name of caste or religion…” Kishor had told ANI.

ECI Notifies By-elections

The Election Commission of India (ECI) on July 6 issued a formal notification for the conduct of by-elections to three key Assembly constituencies across Bihar, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. According to the commission, polling for these seats was scheduled on July 30. The by-elections are being conducted for the 182-Bankipur constituency in Bihar, the 145-Manjalpur constituency in Gujarat, and the 22-Datia constituency in Madhya Pradesh. In Bihar, the by-election for the Bankipur seat was necessitated following the resignation of the sitting member, Nitin Nabin, on March 30, 2026. The seat has remained vacant since his departure from the state legislative assembly. In Madhya Pradesh, the Datia seat became vacant due to the disqualification of Rajendra Bharti on April 2, 2026. The notification cited that the disqualification was under the provisions of Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and Article 191(1)(e) of the Constitution of India. (ANI)

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