Kolkata, Oct. 9 -- The BJP stormed to sweeping victories in the Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls, crushing its rivals by margins of 1,22,753 and 75,816 votes respectively. The Nandigram triumph was particularly striking, with the party's winning margin surging from the 9,665 votes by which Suvendu Adhikari had secured the seat in the Assembly elections barely five months ago.
BJP candidate Hasirani Rath routed Congress nominee Milan Pradhan in Nandigram, polling 1,64,427 votes against Pradhan's 41,674. Ehtesmul Haque of the Democratic Trinamool Congress trailed far behind with just 853 votes.
In Rejinagar, BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar defeated Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) nominee Golam Nabi Azad by 75,816 votes, securing 1,29,914 against 54,098.
The BJP's vote share rose from around 27 per cent to 63 per cent in Rejinagar and from approximately 50 per cent to about 76 per cent in Nandigram between the 2026 Assembly election and the bypoll.
In the 2026 Assembly polls held five months ago, Adhikari bagged about 1.27 lakh votes from Nandigram, while Trinamool candidate Pabitra Kar got around 1.17 lakh votes.
Adhikari, in the 2021 Assembly polls, won Nandigram by 48.4 per cent, bagging about 1.1 lakh votes, while Mamata Banerjee got 47.6 per cent, getting about 1.08 lakh votes. The margin of this victory has since been questioned by the Opposition.
Speaking about the bypolls, Suvendu Adhikari said that the minorities in both the seats had voted for BJP. The minority for ages had voted for the ruling party, he said.
Similarly, in minority dominated Rejinagar, which has over 70 per cent Muslim voters, the margin of 75,000 votes for BJP appeared astronomical for many political experts. However, in the 2026 Assembly polls, Humayun Kabir of AJUP had bagged about 1.2 lakh votes, and BJP had bagged 64,000-plus votes, which was almost 27 per cent of the vote share. But this time the BJP got over 63 per cent of the votes, while AJUP candidate Golam Nabi Azad got 26 per cent of the votes, bagging 54,000 votes.
In Rejinagar, Abdullahil Kafi of Congress got 6,168 votes, while Rabiul Alam Chowdhury of MAITC got 3,847 votes and CPI(M) candidate Md Sayeed got 3,797 votes. In 2011, Rejinagar was won by Humayun Kabir on a Congress ticket, and later Rabiul Alam Chowdhury won successively thrice - twice in 2013 and 2016 as a Congressman and in 2021 as a Trinamool candidate.
Kabir won it in 2026 as an AJUP candidate; however, he resigned from this seat and retained the Naoda seat.
In minority-dominated Rejinagar in Murshidabad, Sarkar's victory came as a surprise to many. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, speaking at Nabanna, claimed that the BJP had received substantial support across religious communities. "Cutting across their religious identity, all people, Hindus and Muslims, have voted for the BJP. We have got maximum minority votes," he said.
Meanwhile, sweeping victories in the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly bypolls triggered allegations of electoral malpractice from the Opposition, with MAITC supremo Mamata Banerjee and national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee questioning the fairness of the polls, while the Congress demanded accountability from the Election Commission and the administration, and the CPI(M) calling it a "vote loot".
Mamata Banerjee on Friday dismissed the results of the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly bypolls, alleging widespread electoral malpractice. Speaking in Delhi, the former Chief Minister questioned the credibility of the elections, saying: "Was this even an election that I should comment on the results? They cannot even rig votes properly."
Referring to an alleged discrepancy in Rejinagar, where 909 votes were reportedly polled against 772 registered voters at a booth, she claimed that such figures indicated booth capturing with police assistance. However, reports suggest there was no such discrepancy, showing that there were 1,109 voters at this particular booth. Reacting to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's explanation of the BJP's victory, Mamata brushed aside questions, asking him to "get his head right" first.
Abhishek Banerjee questioned the EC's impartiality over a video purportedly showing BJP candidate Sarkar casting his vote in Rejinagar, despite being enrolled in the Baharampur Assembly constituency, Part 200, Serial No. 788. Abhishek asked whether voters could cast their ballots outside their registered constituencies if they were BJP candidates, and demanded an explanation from the poll panel, raising concerns over electoral compliance and the impartiality of the election machinery.
The Congress on Friday again alleged that the Nandigram and Rejinagar bypolls were marred by vote rigging, booth capturing and police bias.
State Congress president Shubhankar Sarkar claimed the BJP would have lost both seats had the elections been conducted transparently. Questioning the EC's impartiality, he accused the administration of favouring the BJP and said the results reinforced Congress's responsibility to unite anti-BJP forces and intensify its fight against the BJP-RSS.
Taking a dig at the BJP, the CPI(M) alleged the party achieved emphatic victories in Rejinagar and Nandigram bypolls through "vote loot" and termed it the ruling party's "platinum model".
The CPI(M) flayed the BJP and the EC, alleging the whole poll process was "defiled" and turned into a farce.
CPI(M) West Bengal secretary Mohammed Salim said CM Suvendu Adhikari had announced the margin of victory even before polling took place. "This is not a victory, but vote loot. This is now the platinum model," he said.
However, the BJP's performance in the two seats also put the spotlight on the Opposition's inability to put up a united fight against the BJP, as experts felt that minority votes could not be properly used by the Opposition.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.