Nandigram Bypoll Result: BJP Wins Nandigram, Rejinagar Seats

Quick Answer: The BJP swept both West Bengal Assembly bypolls on Friday, October 9. Rejinagar was formally declared after all 15 rounds, with the BJP's Shankharavh Sarkar defeating the AJUP's Golam Nabi Azad by 75,661 votes. In Nandigram, the BJP's Hasirani Rath won by more than one lakh votes, giving Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari a double boost months into his party's first Bengal government.

Kolkata: The Bharatiya Janata Party tightened its grip on West Bengal on Friday, sweeping both Assembly bypolls held earlier this week. The results, which rolled in through the afternoon as counting wrapped up, handed Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari a clear political win just five months after his party formed its first government in the state.

Rejinagar in Murshidabad district was declared first. After all 15 rounds of counting, the BJP's Shankharavh Sarkar beat Golam Nabi Azad of the Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) by 75,661 votes, The Statesman reported. Azad, the son of AJUP founder Humayun Kabir, managed just 13,600 votes. In Nandigram — the high-profile seat Adhikari himself vacated — the BJP's Hasirani Rath won by a margin of more than one lakh votes over Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, with Times Now reporting both seats as BJP wins as the final rounds concluded.

Rejinagar bypoll result: a Muslim-majority seat turns saffron

The Rejinagar outcome is the one that will get talked about the most. This is a constituency in Murshidabad district with a nearly 70 per cent Muslim electorate, according to NDTV — not the sort of seat where the BJP is supposed to win, let alone win big.

Sarkar's victory came against a crowded field. Azad carried his father's party banner, the Congress fielded Abdullahil Kafi, and the two warring Trinamool factions put up their own candidates — Rabiul Alam Chowdhury for the Mamata All India Trinamul Congress and Safiuzzaman Saikh for the rival Democratic Trinamool Congress faction led by Arup Roy. The split opposition vote helped, but a 75,000-plus margin is no accident of arithmetic. It signals something deeper shifting in Bengal's Muslim vote.

Adhikari read the result exactly that way. Speaking as the numbers came in, he claimed that Bengali-speaking Muslims had been told they would be deported and denied government benefits if the BJP came to power — a claim he said the results had disproved. He pointed to welfare figures, saying 35,000 Muslim women were among 70,000 Annapurna Yojana beneficiaries in Rejinagar, and predicted that Bengali-speaking Muslims would back his government in future elections, ABP News reported. His message was blunt: minorities had, in his words, found a friend in the BJP.

Hazarduari Palace in Murshidabad, the district that contains the Rejinagar Assembly seat the BJP won on Friday

Hazarduari Palace in Murshidabad, the district home to Rejinagar — the Muslim-majority seat the BJP captured in Friday's bypoll. Photo: Dassap, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Hasirani Rath wins Nandigram by a margin of more than a lakh

If Rejinagar was the surprise, Nandigram was the statement. This was Adhikari's own seat, the one he gave up after winning both it and Bhabanipur in the Assembly elections earlier this year and choosing to keep Bhabanipur, where he had defeated former chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The BJP's candidate, Hasirani Rath, carried an emotional story into the contest. She is the mother of Chandranath Rath, a close aide of Adhikari who was shot dead on May 6, days after the BJP came to power for the first time in West Bengal. Rath's lead kept growing through the day — past 97,000 votes after 12 rounds, past 1,05,000 after 13, and above 1,15,000 after 14, according to figures carried by the New Indian Express, NDTV and The Statesman respectively. Congress's Milan Pradhan, who had the backing of the Trinamool Congress, finished a distant second.

Speaking after the result, Rath thanked the party organisation and its workers. "I am grateful to our organisation, our leadership, and our BJP workers who didn't rest day or night and worked for the party," she said, adding that the victory belonged to the people of Nandigram and to Suvendu Adhikari, The News Mill reported.

Suvendu Adhikari at his swearing-in ceremony as Chief Minister of West Bengal

Suvendu Adhikari at his swearing-in as West Bengal's Chief Minister. Friday's bypoll sweep is the first electoral test his government has faced since taking office in May. Photo: Prime Minister's Office, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons.

Why the West Bengal bypoll results matter

Bypolls rarely change governments, and these two seats won't change the arithmetic in the Bengal Assembly. Their importance is political, not numerical — they are the first electoral test of the Adhikari government since it ended the Trinamool Congress's 15-year rule in May.

For the BJP, the double win does two things at once. In Nandigram, it shows the party can hold Adhikari's personal stronghold even without him on the ballot — no small thing, given how much of the BJP's Bengal story has revolved around one man. In Rejinagar, it suggests the party's outreach to Muslim voters is producing actual votes, not just rhetoric. If that holds, it redraws the electoral map of a state where the BJP was long written off as a party that couldn't win minority-dominated seats.

For the opposition, the results are grim reading. The Congress, which had demanded fresh polling in both seats alleging booth capturing and intimidation of its workers, was rejected by voters rather than vindicated by the Election Commission. The BJP dismissed those allegations, and counting went ahead under tight security. The split Trinamool factions, meanwhile, barely registered — a reminder of how far the party that ruled Bengal for a decade and a half has fallen.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata

Prime Minister Narendra Modi with Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari at Kolkata's Brigade Parade Ground. The BJP's national leadership will read Friday's Bengal sweep as validation of the party's eastern strategy. Photo: Prime Minister's Office, GODL-India, via Wikimedia Commons.

What happens next

The immediate question is whether the BJP can convert a bypoll sweep into momentum for the civic polls ahead. Adhikari's comments on Friday suggest he already sees Rejinagar as a template — welfare delivery plus minority outreach, repeated across the state.

The wider bypoll picture also filled in on Friday. In Puducherry, the NDA ally AINRC's Ashok Anand won the Thattanchavady seat by over 8,000 votes. In Assam's Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll, the BJP's Devasish Sharma was heading for a big win over AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal. In Tamil Nadu, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay's TVK was leading in both Madurantakam and Dharapuram. The Election Commission had scheduled the entire by-election process to be completed before October 11.

For Bengal's opposition, the hard work starts now. The Congress's re-polling demand went nowhere, the Trinamool factions are still fighting each other, and the BJP has just shown it can win both a prestige seat and a seat it was never supposed to win — on the same day.

Key Takeaways

The BJP won both West Bengal Assembly bypolls on Friday, October 9 — Nandigram and Rejinagar.
Rejinagar was formally declared after all 15 rounds: BJP's Shankharavh Sarkar beat AJUP's Golam Nabi Azad by 75,661 votes in a seat with a ~70% Muslim electorate.
In Nandigram, BJP's Hasirani Rath won by more than one lakh votes over Congress's Milan Pradhan.
Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed the results disproved fears that Muslims would be deported or denied benefits under BJP rule, citing welfare figures from Rejinagar.
The bypolls were the first electoral test of Adhikari's government since the BJP ended the TMC's 15-year rule in May.
Congress's demand for re-polling over alleged booth capturing was dismissed; counting proceeded under tight security.

Frequently asked questions

Who won the Nandigram bypoll in 2026?

Hasirani Rath of the BJP won the Nandigram Assembly bypoll on October 9, 2026, defeating Congress candidate Milan Pradhan by a margin of more than one lakh votes. The seat had been vacated by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who chose to retain Bhabanipur after winning both constituencies in the Assembly elections earlier this year.

Who won the Rejinagar bypoll?

The BJP's Shankharavh Sarkar won the Rejinagar bypoll after all 15 rounds of counting, defeating Golam Nabi Azad of the Aam Janata Unnayan Party by 75,661 votes. The result is significant because Rejinagar, in Murshidabad district, has a nearly 70 per cent Muslim electorate.

Why was the Nandigram bypoll held in 2026?

The bypoll was necessitated after Suvendu Adhikari won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the West Bengal Assembly elections earlier this year. He retained Bhabanipur — where he had defeated former chief minister Mamata Banerjee — and vacated Nandigram, triggering the by-election held on October 6.

Why was there a bypoll in Rejinagar?

Rejinagar fell vacant after AJUP founder Humayun Kabir won both Rejinagar and Nowda in the Assembly elections and chose to retain Nowda. His party fielded his son, Golam Nabi Azad, for the bypoll, but the BJP's Shankharavh Sarkar won the seat.

What did Suvendu Adhikari say after the bypoll results?

Adhikari said the results disproved claims that Bengali-speaking Muslims would be deported or denied government benefits under BJP rule. He cited welfare data — including 35,000 Muslim women among 70,000 Annapurna Yojana beneficiaries in Rejinagar — and said minorities had found a friend in the BJP, according to ABP News.

Did the Congress demand re-polling in the Bengal bypolls?

Yes. The Congress alleged booth capturing and intimidation of its workers during the October 6 voting and demanded fresh polling in both Nandigram and Rejinagar. The BJP rejected the allegations, and the Election Commission's counting proceeded as scheduled under three-tier security.

What were the other bypoll results on October 9?

In Puducherry, AINRC's Ashok Anand won Thattanchavady by over 8,000 votes. In Assam's Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll, the BJP's Devasish Sharma was heading for a comfortable win. In Tamil Nadu, the ruling TVK led in both Madurantakam and Dharapuram. All results were being finalised ahead of the Election Commission's October 11 deadline.

Why it matters

These were small elections with big meaning. For the BJP, winning a Muslim-majority seat by 75,000 votes and holding the Chief Minister's own seat by more than a lakh — in the same afternoon — is the strongest possible start to governing a state it had never ruled before May. For the opposition, it's a warning that the old electoral maths of West Bengal may no longer apply.

Sources

By GlobalDeskNews Staff