BJP loses Bankipur bastion, Nitish Kumar pays a ‘courtesy call’ on Modi

Kumar, a Rajya Sabha MP, was accompanied by Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh and national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, in his meeting with the prime minister.

PM Narendra Modi with MP Nitish Kumar during the meeting. New Delhi. Photo: @PMOIndia/X/ PTI
2 min read  |  Published: 04 Aug 2026

JD-U supremo and former chief minister of Bihar Nitish Kumar on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a day after the BJP lost Patna's Bankipur assembly seat in a by-election.

Kumar, a Rajya Sabha MP, was accompanied by JD-U leaders -- Union minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh and Rajya Sabha MP and national working president Sanjay Kumar Jha – in his meeting with the prime minister.

"Rajya Sabha MP Shri @NitishKumar Ji met PM @narendramodi earlier today," the prime minister's office said in a post on 'X'.

Kumar said he paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister at his office room in the Parliament House complex here.

Rajya Sabha MP Shri @NitishKumar Ji met PM @narendramodi earlier today. pic.twitter.com/46tXIpvCtr

The by-election at Bankipur, considered a BJP bastion, was necessitated after BJP president Nitin Nabin vacated the seat following his election to Rajya Sabha after he assumed the charge of party chief. Poll strategist-turned-politician and Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor defeated BJP’s Neeraj Kumar by a margin of 19,324 votes.

The BJP and JD-U are running a coalition government in Bihar.

Kumar, the ten-time chief minister of Bihar, resigned from the state's top post in April, following which, for the first time, a BJP leader, Samrat Choudhary, assumed the charge of chief minister.

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