BJP wins Bengal’s Muslim-majority Rejinagar seat by 75,816 votes

The BJP on Friday won the Rejinagar Assembly seat in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district by a margin of 75,816 votes, marking a significant breakthrough in the Muslim-majority constituency.

BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar secured 1,29,914 votes in the by-election, defeating his nearest rival, Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) candidate Golam Nabi Azad, who polled 54,098 votes, according to results declared by the Election Commission.

The BJP secured around 63.14% of the votes, while Azad received 26.29%.

The result came amid a fragmented opposition, with the Congress, the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress and the breakaway Democratic Trinamool Congress (DTMC) failing to mount a strong challenge.

Congress candidate Abdullahil Kafi secured 6,168 votes, finishing ahead of Mamata TMC nominee Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, who polled 3,847 votes.

Safiuzzaman Saikh, the DTMC candidate, received 2,044 votes, while the CPI(M) secured 3,797 votes.

Rejinagar has a nearly 70% Muslim electorate and has traditionally witnessed contests involving the TMC, Congress and regional political formations.

The BJP’s victory has brought the constituency’s changing electoral equations into focus. However, the result alone does not establish how individual communities voted.

The by-election was necessitated after AJUP founder Humayun Kabir vacated the seat. Kabir, a former TMC leader who later founded the AJUP, had won Rejinagar by more than 58,000 votes in the 2026 Assembly elections but retained the Nowda seat.

His son, Golam Nabi Azad, contested the by-election on the AJUP ticket.