Prashant Kishor alleges Bihar Police detained supporters hours before Bankipur bypoll

Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor on Thursday alleged that Bihar Police detained more than 16 of his supporters at the behest of the ruling BJP, hours before polling began in the Bankipur assembly bypoll.

Kishor, who is contesting his first election from the seat, made the allegation outside the Jakkanpur police station, where he said he had been waiting for hours for information about the whereabouts of his supporters.

"I am not describing these as arrests since there is no record of which of my people have been named in which case," Kishor told reporters. He alleged that the detainees had been moved to different police stations and claimed the detentions were carried out at the direction of senior officials.

Police officials were not immediately available for comment on the allegations.

Kishor alleged that the ruling BJP was behind the detentions because it feared losing the bypoll.

"The police can keep a person in custody for 24 hours without producing him before a magistrate. So a plan has been devised to keep some of my supporters in custody till the time voting is over," he claimed.

He also accused the ruling NDA of misusing the administrative machinery and claimed the BJP had mobilised almost all of its 201 MLAs for the campaign.

Kishor further alleged that a "fake video" of JD(U) president Nitish Kumar had been circulated in which the Bihar chief minister was shown seeking votes for the BJP candidate. He did not provide evidence for the claim.

The Bankipur bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of BJP president Nitin Nabin. Twenty-six candidates are in the fray, though the contest is widely seen as primarily between Kishor and BJP candidate Neeraj Kumar Sinha, a youth wing leader.

Kishor said he was at the police station to protest what he called a lack of professionalism by the police.

He alleged that the station house officer had tried to intimidate his party workers and threatened to book one of them under the state's prohibition law.

"Once we are through with the bypoll, we will definitely press for action against the erring police officials," Kishor said.