Jan Suraaj Party Bankipur Assembly bypoll candidate Prashant Kishor flashes a victory sign as he files his nomination papers, in Patna
| Photo Credit: ANI
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha and Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kisore filed their nomination on Monday (July 13, 2026) for the Bankipur assembly by-election. Senior BJP leaders, including Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary and Bihar BJP President Sanjay Saraogi, attended the nomination.
The seat fell vacant after Nitin Nabin was elected to the Rajya Sabha. On Friday (July 10), the BJP nominated Mr. Sinha as its candidate after Abhishek Kumar alias Bunty withdrew his candidature.
The other leaders of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) who were present during the nomination included Janata Dal (United) State President Umesh Singh Kushwaha, Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) State President Raju Tiwari, Hindustani Awam Morcha (Secular) State President Anil Kumar, and Rashtriya Lok Morcha (RLM) State President Alok Kumar.
As per the affidavit declared before the Election Commission of India (ECI) Mr. Kishor and his wife, Jahanvi Das, have a total movable assets value of ₹1,217,142,225, of which ₹22,19,74,976 belongs to Mr. Kishor and the rest ₹99,51,67,249 to his wife. Ms. Das has 475 grams of gold costing ₹64,12,500 and 200 grams of silver, with a total value of ₹46,000. His wife is an MBBS and Senior Advisor, Special Projects at Apollo Indraprastha Hospital, New Delhi. His 16-year-old son Daibik Bhardwaj has movable assets of ₹7,19,281.
Poll strategist turned politician, Mr. Kishor has immovable assets with a current market value of ₹73.87 crore, and his wife also has immovable assets of ₹12.42 crore. In the affidavit, he has also shown the total liabilities of ₹5.77 crore, whereas his wife has liabilities of ₹55.38 lakh. The total movable and immovable assets are ₹208,00,42,225.
He has a 100% controlling stake in Vedhas Ventures Private Limited, and this company has donated ₹85 crore to the Jan Suraaj Party and ₹50 lakhs to the Jan Suraaj Foundation in the year 2024-25 and ₹2.75 crore to Joy of Giving Global Foundation in the year 2023-24.
His highest educational qualification is a Post-Graduate in the year 2001-2003 – Master of Healthcare Management (MHA), Administrative Staff, College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad. He has also done Specialised Healthcare Programme developed in collaboration with John Hopkins University, USA and Hinduja Hospital.
He also has a degree in Intensive French Language Course from CAVILAM VICHY, CLERMONT FERRAND University, France. Mr. Kishor has eight criminal cases pending against him, with most of them dealing with unlawful assembly; however, he has not been convicted in any of the cases.
Till the filing of this report, the affidavit of the BJP candidate was not uploaded on the ECI website. Before the nomination, both candidates held the road show till the Patna Collectorate. Today was the last day to file the nomination. Polling will be held on July 30, and counting of votes will take place on August 3.
Meanwhile, Vina Mandavi, Janshakti Janata Dal (JJD) candidate belonging to Tej Pratap Yadav’s party, was arrested by the Patna police soon after filing her nomination in connection with an old case lodged against her.
Published – July 14, 2026 04:31 am IST
