Bypoll campaign ends across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Assam
A high-decibel campaign for bypolls to the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly constituencies in West Bengal drew to a close on Sunday evening, as political parties made a final push to woo voters.
The Assembly bypoll campaign in the two reserved constituencies in Tamil Nadu and a high-octane campaign for the Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll in Assam also ended on Sunday.
The bypoll will be held on October 6, with the counting of votes slated for October 9.
The two bypolls in Bengal were necessitated after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari vacated Nandigram, which he had won alongside Bhabanipur, while Rejinagar fell vacant after AJUP chief Humayun Kabir retained Nawda upon winning both seats in the 2026 Assembly elections. Besides the BJP and the Congress, the Left, ISF and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Democratic Trinamool Congress are also in the fray.
Tamil Nadu too is witnessing a five-way contest with allies battling each other ended on Sunday, with ruling TVK founder and CM Joseph C Vijay wrapping up his party’s campaign with an expansive roadshow that went for over three hours.
TVK is keen to win both seats and increase its tally in the 234-member Assembly to 109, just nine short of a simple majority. While the Congress, the VCK and the IUML are part of the TVK-led coalition ministry, the two Left parties — CPI (M) and CPI with two MLAs each, extend crucial outside support to the Vijay-led Government.
In the Assam Lok Sabha bypoll, former MLA Sibamoni Bora of the Congress is pitted against BJP’s Devasish Sharma, a former IAS officer who had resigned as Nagaon district commissioner in September to enter electoral politics, and AIUDF chief and MLA Badruddin Ajmal is also in the fray. The bypoll was necessitated after sitting MP Pradyut Bordoloi quit the Congress to join the BJP ahead of the Assembly elections earlier this year. He is now a saffron party MLA.
