Bengal: BJP makes inroads in Muslim-majority Rejinagar

Kolkata: The BJP on Friday, October 9, dominated the West Bengal assembly by-elections, held around four months after the party stormed to power in the state, achieving an unassailable lead of 1,05,869 votes in Nandigram and making surprise inroads in Muslim-majority Rejinagar, as counting trends laid bare the vulnerabilities of a fragmented opposition.

According to the latest Election Commission figures, BJP’s Nandigram candidate Hasirani Rath was leading over Congress nominee Milan Pradhan, supported by former CM Mamata Banerjee, by 1,05,869 votes after 13 rounds of counting.

Rath, the mother of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s slain personal assistant Chandranath Rath, secured 1,43,656 votes against Pradhan’s 37,787.

In Rejinagar, a constituency in Murshidabad district with a nearly 70 per cent Muslim electorate, BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar was ahead of Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) nominee Golam Nabi Azad by 37,506 votes after seven rounds. Sarkar polled 61,386 votes, while Azad, son of AJUP founder Humayun Kabir, secured 23,880.

A total of 15 rounds of counting will be held in each constituency.

The trends offered two contrasting but politically significant readings of West Bengal’s changing electoral landscape: the BJP’s consolidation in Nandigram, a constituency key to the state’s political history, and its unexpectedly strong showing in Rejinagar, where minority votes have traditionally shaped electoral contests.

“Nationalist forces are all set to win both the seats,” Adhikari told reporters.

In Rejinagar, Congress nominee Abdullahil Kafi was at a distant third with 2,893 votes, closely trailed by Mamata All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) candidate Rabiul Alam Chowdhury with 2,862 votes.

Safiuzzaman Saikh, candidate of the breakaway Democratic Trinamool Congress (DTMC), led by Arup Roy, polled only 932 votes.

In Nandigram, DTMC candidate Ehteshmul Haque secured only 719 votes, suggesting that the faction’s attempt to establish an independent electoral foothold had yet to translate into substantial support in either constituency.

The scale of the BJP’s leads is particularly striking against the backdrop of the 2026 assembly elections. Adhikari had won Nandigram by 9,665 votes while also winning Bhabanipur. He vacated the former seat, necessitating the by-election.

Rath’s lead has already far exceeded that margin, although the final result was still awaited.

Nandigram has occupied a central place in West Bengal’s political narrative since the anti-land acquisition movement helped propel the Trinamool Congress to end the Left Front’s 34-year rule and storm to power in 2011.

The constituency subsequently became the stage for one of the state’s most consequential political battles when Adhikari defeated the then CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 assembly elections.

Rath’s candidature added an emotional dimension to the bypoll after her son Chandranath was shot dead on May 6, two days after the BJP won the assembly elections. Her commanding lead has given the ruling party an opportunity to consolidate its position in a constituency closely associated with the chief minister’s political journey.

The opposition’s strategy in Nandigram also came under scrutiny. The Mamata TMC nominee, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew from the contest after meeting Adhikari, following which Banerjee backed Congress candidate Milan Pradhan in an apparent attempt to prevent a division of anti-BJP votes. The Congress nominee, however, remained far behind Rath in the counting trends.

Rejinagar, meanwhile, presented a different test of the BJP’s electoral reach. With around 70 per cent of its electorate being Muslim, the constituency in Murshidabad has traditionally been viewed through the prism of competition among the Congress, the TMC and regional political formations.

The BJP’s lead over the AJUP candidate marked a sharp contrast with the previous assembly election, when Kabir won Rejinagar by more than 58,000 votes, while also bagging Nowda. His son, Golam Nabi Azad, was contesting the bypoll after Kabir vacated the seat.

Kabir, a former TMC leader who was expelled from the party following controversy over his proposal for a Babri Masjid-style mosque in Murshidabad, subsequently founded the AJUP. His emergence had reshaped the political contest in a constituency where minority votes have historically played a significant role.

The BJP’s performance has consequently placed the spotlight on whether a divided opposition and a crowded field have altered Rejinagar’s electoral arithmetic. With 15 candidates in the fray, the presence of several competing formations may have contributed to the BJP’s advantage..

The counting figures, however, do not by themselves establish how individual communities voted or explain the reasons behind the party’s lead.

The results also raised questions about the electoral prospects of the rebel TMC faction led by Arup Roy, which has sought to establish its claim to the party’s political legacy under a separate identity. Its candidates had polled fewer than 1,000 votes in both constituencies at the stages for which figures were available, offering little evidence so far of a substantial independent electoral base.