3 min readPatnaAug 5, 2026 05:20 AM IST
In the run-up to the high-stakes bypoll for the Bankipur Assembly constituency, Jan Suraaj Party (JSP) founder Prashant Kishor had repeatedly accused MP Ravi Shankar Prasad of saying that even a cat or dog (“kutta-billi”) could win the seat on BJP’s ticket.
Invoking the purported remark throughout the campaign, Kishor was heard telling voters in nearly every speech how the ruling party was “underestimating the discretion and intellect” of the electorate. The alleged statement effectively became JSP’s central campaign line against the BJP.
However, a day after the JSP founder secured a resounding victory in the bypoll, Prasad, a former Union minister and BJP’s Patna Sahib MP, has dismissed the remarks attributed to him, claiming he never uttered the said words.
Prasad, who issued a clarification video on Tuesday, told The Indian Express: “How can people stoop to such a level? Neither I nor any BJP worker made a “kutta-billi” reference at any point. I challenge them to show proof of any such remark. In fact, I had even clarified before the election how JSP was making a motivated statement by falsely attributing it to us. We respect each of our workers and voters.”
Jan Suraaj Party chief Prashant Kishor celebrates with supporters in Patna, Monday. (PTI)
Asked why the BJP did not issue a stronger rebuttal during the election campaign even as the JSP was playing it up, Prasad said: “We did clarify it. There was no need to repeatedly address something we never said. But if someone stoops to such levels just to win an election, we can only condemn it.”
Prasad was one of the 40 star campaigners of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the bypoll.
Kishor’s reference was made in the context of the BJP fielding a relatively unknown candidate for the seat, previously represented by Nitin Nabin – now the party’s national president. After the BJP withdrew the candidature of Abhishek Bunty due to his father’s conviction in a fodder scam case, booth-level worker Neeraj Kumar Sinha, a Nabin nominee, was brought to the fray.
‘Not able to digest defeat’
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On Prasad’s clarification, senior JSP leader and former MLA Kishore Kumar Munna said: “Now that the BJP has lost the election, its leaders are coming with several kinds of clarifications. It shows that they are not able to digest defeat. Isn’t it true that the BJP had fielded a very weak candidate in such a high-profile constituency? Voters have responded by choosing the best candidate.”
Kishor won the Bankipur by-election by a margin of 19,000 votes, making a successful electoral debut from a seat the BJP had held uninterrupted from 1995 to 2026.
Formerly known as Patna West, Bankipur was historically represented by former Chief Minister Mahamaya Prasad Sinha, who defeated then-Congress CM K B Sahay in the 1967 elections. Janata Party’s Thakur Prasad later won the seat in 1977. Key power centers and institutions—including the CM House, Raj Bhavan, the Bihar Legislature, and the state headquarters of the BJP, the JD(U), and the RJD — fall within the Bankipur Assembly segment.