BJP wins Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls, secures victories in contrasting Bengal seats
The BJP has won both the Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly bypolls in West Bengal, securing victories by wide margins in two constituencies with different political backgrounds. The results, declared by the Election Commission on Friday, saw the party defeat Congress in Nandigram and the Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) in Muslim-majority Rejinagar.
In Nandigram, BJP candidate Hasirani Rath won by 1,22,753 votes, while party nominee Shankharavh Sarkar secured Rejinagar by a margin of 75,816 votes. The results come around four months after the BJP replaced the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in power in West Bengal.
The two victories also come in constituencies where opposition candidates failed to mount a serious challenge to the BJP.
Nandigram: Hasirani Rath wins by over 1.22 lakh votes
Hasirani Rath polled 1,64,427 votes in Nandigram, in Purba Medinipur district, defeating Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, who received 41,674 votes.
Rath is the mother of Chandranath Rath, the personal assistant of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari who was shot dead in Madhyamgram, on the outskirts of Kolkata, on May 6. The killing took place two days after the BJP won the West Bengal Assembly elections.
Candidates from the Left Front, the Indian Secular Front (ISF) and the Democratic Trinamool Congress (DTMC) also contested the bypoll but lost their deposits. CPI candidate Santi Gopal Giri finished third with 5,779 votes.
Nandigram has remained a key constituency in West Bengal politics since the anti-land acquisition movement that helped the TMC come to power in 2011. The seat later became the centre of a high-profile contest between Suvendu Adhikari and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 Assembly elections, when Adhikari defeated the then chief minister.
The bypoll was held after Adhikari, who won Nandigram in the 2026 Assembly elections, retained Bhabanipur.
Rejinagar: BJP defeats AJUP in Muslim-majority seat
In Murshidabad district, BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar won Rejinagar with 1,29,914 votes, defeating AJUP candidate Golam Nabi Azad, who secured 54,098 votes.
According to the declared results, Sarkar received 63.14% of the votes, while Azad polled 26.29%. Rejinagar has a Muslim electorate of nearly 70% and has traditionally seen contests involving the TMC, Congress and regional political groups.
Congress candidate Abdullahil Kafi received 6,168 votes, followed by Mamata TMC nominee Rabiul Alam Chowdhury with 3,847 votes. The CPI(M) secured 3,797 votes, while DTMC candidate Safiuzzaman Saikh received 2,044 votes.
The result marks a BJP victory in a constituency where regional parties and the TMC have traditionally featured prominently. However, the outcome alone does not establish how voters from individual religious communities voted.
Why were the two bypolls held?
The Rejinagar bypoll became necessary after AJUP founder Humayun Kabir chose to retain Nowda, another constituency he won in the 2026 Assembly elections. Kabir, a former TMC leader who later established the AJUP, had won Rejinagar by more than 58,000 votes in that election. His son, Golam Nabi Azad, contested the bypoll as the party's candidate.
The Nandigram seat fell vacant after Suvendu Adhikari retained Bhabanipur following his victory in Nandigram in the 2026 Assembly elections.
With the BJP winning both seats, the bypoll results offer an early electoral snapshot of the political contest in West Bengal following the change of government.
With agency inputs