West Bengal bypolls: BJP holds Nandigram, makes Rejinagar inroads

The BJP on Friday steamrolled its rivals in Nandigram and scored a surprise win in Muslim-majority Rejinagar, underlining its expanding political reach in West Bengal barely four months after ending TMC’s 15-year rule, as a fragmented opposition struggled to mount a challenge in the ruling party’s first electoral test.

The twin victories carried contrasting but politically significant messages: in Nandigram, the BJP consolidated its hold over a constituency central to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s political rise; while in Rejinagar, it signalled its ability to expand beyond its traditional electoral base. Hasirani Rath, the BJP candidate in Nandigram and mother of Adhikari’s slain personal assistant Chandranath Rath, won by 1,22,753 votes, polling 1,64,427 against 41,674 for Congress nominee Milan Pradhan, backed by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee. CPI candidate Santi Gopal Giri finished third with 5,779 votes.

In Rejinagar, BJP’s Shankharavh Sarkar defeated Aam Janata Unnayan Party nominee Golam Nabi Azad by 75,816 votes. Sarkar secured 1,29,914 votes against 54,098 for Azad, son of AJUP founder Humayun Kabir. Congress nominee Abdullahil Kafi polled 6,168 votes, while the Mamata-led All India Trinamool Congress nominee Rabiul Alam Chowdhury got 3,847. The breakaway Democratic Trinamool Congress candidate Safiuzzaman Saikh secured 2,044 votes, while the CPI(M) polled 3,797.

All candidates, except the first runners-up in the two constituencies, forfeited their security deposits, underlining the scale of the BJP’s victories and the opposition’s electoral marginalisation.

Now, the BJP has 209 MLAs in the 294-member assembly in the state. The BJP’s vote share surged from around 27 per cent to 63 per cent in Rejinagar and from 50 per cent to 76 per cent in Nandigram, pointing to a substantial shift in the electoral arithmetic of both constituencies.

The CM interpreted the results as evidence that the BJP was gaining acceptance among minority voters.

“The minority community has found a friend in BJP, and they voted for us,” he told reporters, claiming that the party secured around 60 per cent of Muslim votes in Rejinagar and 80 per cent in Nandigram.

In Rejinagar, Muslims account for around 70 per cent of the electorate, according to figures cited during the campaign. The constituency has traditionally witnessed competition among the TMC, Congress and regional political formations, with minority votes playing an important role.

Kabir, a turncoat, had won Rejinagar by over 58,000 votes in the Assembly election before retaining Nowda, necessitating the bypoll. His son lost by a wider margin than his father’s earlier victory.

The BJP’s breakthrough has placed the spotlight on whether the constituency’s electoral equations are changing and whether opposition fragmentation helped the party consolidate its support.

Nandigram carried a different political significance. The anti-land acquisition movement there helped propel the TMC to power in 2011, ending the Left Front’s 34-year rule. Adhikari defeated Banerjee in the 2021 Assembly election. He won Nandigram again in May by 9,665 votes but retained Bhabanipur, forcing the bypoll.

Rath’s margin vastly exceeded that victory, consolidating the BJP’s position in a constituency closely associated with the CM’s political journey.

Her candidature also carried an emotional dimension. Chandranath Rath, Adhikari’s personal assistant, was shot dead on May 6, two days after the BJP won the Assembly election.

The opposition’s strategy in Nandigram failed to translate into a competitive challenge. The Mamata-led TMC faction’s nominee, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew after meeting Adhikari, following which Banerjee backed Congress candidate Milan Pradhan. Yet he finished more than 1.22 lakh votes behind Rath.

Across the two constituencies, the opposition remained divided over leadership, political identity and strategy.

In Rejinagar, multiple parties sought to represent anti-BJP voters; in Nandigram, Congress contested with Banerjee’s backing while the rival TMC faction and Left parties fielded separate candidates. The results offered little evidence that these competing approaches had translated into a credible challenge to the BJP.

The bypolls were the first electoral test of the BJP government since it replaced the TMC after 15 years in power.

The results also sharpened the question of who can occupy the opposition space in Bengal. The TMC’s defeat has disrupted a political order in which it had dominated the state for 15 years, while Congress and the Left have struggled to recover their former organisational strength. The emergence of competing TMC factions has complicated attempts to consolidate anti-BJP votes.

Polling in both constituencies recorded high turnout, with Nandigram registering 80.89 per cent and Rejinagar 80.08 per cent. The elections were marked by allegations of intimidation, booth-level irregularities and sporadic clashes.

State Congress president Subhankar Sarkar alleged that the results reflected “muscle power” operating with the tacit understanding of the state police administration and the Election Commission, rather than the people’s mandate. Kunal Ghosh, an MLA of the Mamata-led TMC faction, alleged that the election had been “looted”. The BJP rejected the allegations.

For the BJP, the significance of the verdict lies in the combination of consolidation and expansion: a commanding victory in Nandigram, where its chief minister built his political stature, and a breakthrough in Rejinagar, where the party had faced questions about the reach of its appeal.

The bypolls have not settled who will emerge as the principal challenger to the BJP in Bengal. They have, however, underlined the scale of the task facing opposition parties as the state’s political landscape adjusts to the end of TMC rule.