Nandigram heads to bypoll
The Election Commission of India on Monday announced bypolls to five Assembly seats in three states, including Nandigram, vacated by West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari after he chose to retain Bhabanipur, where he had defeated former chief minister Mamata Banerjee.
Along with the five Assembly seats across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, bypolls in Assam’s Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency will also be held on October 6, while counting of votes will take place on October 9, according to the poll panel.
Nagaon seat was vacated by Pradyut Bordoloi, who had won from the constituency on a Congress ticket in 2024. He joined the BJP and won from Dispur in the recent Assembly polls.
Adhikari, who led the BJP to its maiden Government in West Bengal, contested and won both Nandigram and Bhabanipur in the April elections.
He defeated Trinamool Congress chief Banerjee in her Bhabanipur stronghold by 15,105 votes and subsequently chose to retain the Kolkata seat, resigning as the MLA from Nandigram. He had also defeated Banerjee in Nandigram in the 2021 Assembly polls.
The other West Bengal seat headed for a bypoll is Rejinagar, which was vacated by Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) chief Humayun Kabir.
Kabir, a former Trinamool Congress leader who floated the AJUP after his expulsion from the party, won both Rejinagar and Naoda in the 2026 Assembly elections.
In Tamil Nadu, bypolls will be held in the Madurantakam (SC) and Dharapuram (SC) Assembly constituencies, which were won in the recent elections by AIADMK’s Maragatham Kumaravel and P Sathyabama, respectively.
The two were among a group of rebel AIADMK legislators who backed Chief Minister Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) Government in a floor test. Kumaravel and Sathyabama later resigned as MLAs and joined the ruling TVK, necessitating the bypolls.
Puducherry’s Thattanchavady seat was vacated by Chief Minister and All India N R Congress chief N Rangasamy, who had won from both Thattanchavady and Mangalam in the Assembly elections. Rangasamy opted to retain Mangalam and resigned from Thattanchavady.
The Model Code of Conduct has come into force with immediate effect in the districts concerned, the EC said.
Two other Lok Sabha seats — Shillong in Meghalaya and Basirhat in West Bengal — remain vacant and polls have not been scheduled there yet.
Shillong fell vacant following the death of Voice of the People Party (VPP) MP Ricky Andrew J Syngkon in February this year, while Basirhat has remained vacant since the death of Trinamool Congress MP Haji Sheikh Nurul Islam in September 2024.
