BJP’s Hasi Rani Rath wins Nandigram bypoll by over 1.22 lakh votes
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Hasi Rani Rath on Friday won the Nandigram Assembly by-election in West Bengal by a margin of 1,22,753 votes, defeating her nearest rival, Congress candidate Milan Pradhan.
Rath secured 1,64,427 votes, while Pradhan polled 41,674 votes, marking a decisive victory for the BJP in the politically significant constituency.
The bypoll was necessitated after West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the 2026 Assembly elections, retained Bhabanipur and vacated Nandigram.
The BJP fielded Rath, the mother of Chandranath Rath, a former aide of Adhikari who was shot dead in May. Congress candidate Milan Pradhan contested with the support of Mamata Banerjee’s faction of the Trinamool Congress after its nominee withdrew from the contest.
Nandigram has remained a key battleground in West Bengal politics. In the 2021 Assembly elections, Adhikari defeated then Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the constituency by a narrow margin of 1,956 votes.
The BJP’s win in the bypoll comes as the party faces an important electoral test in the state following the 2026 Assembly elections. Nandigram was one of two West Bengal constituencies that went to the polls in the by-election.
