Kolkata, 28 October (H.S.): Two newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators took their oaths of office and secrecy in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Wednesday.

Assembly Speaker Rabindra Bose administered the oath to Sakharav Sarkar, who recently won the Rejinagar assembly by-election, and Hasirani Rath, the newly elected MLA from the Nandigram constituency.

Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari was specially present at the ceremony. He warmly welcomed both the new legislators by presenting them with traditional angavastras. The atmosphere inside the House took a charged turn during the ceremony as BJP MLAs raised resounding slogans of 'Jai Shri Ram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai', echoing throughout the assembly hall.

A major talking point of the ceremony was the notable absence of senior leader Humayun Kabir, who had won the 2026 general assembly election from Rejinagar. Kabir remained absent from the House proceedings.

It is worth noting that following his party's defeat in the Rejinagar by-election, Kabir had publicly announced that as long as Suvendu Adhikari remains the Chief Minister of the state, seat number 88 in the assembly (where he sits) will remain perpetually empty, and he will boycott the assembly proceedings.

According to recent election data, the BJP has registered massive victories in the by-elections for both of these highly discussed assembly seats.

In a major political breakthrough in the Muslim-dominated Rejinagar seat, the BJP secured a historic win. BJP candidate Sakharav Sarkar defeated his closest rival, Ghulam Nabi Azad of the Aam Janta Unnayan Party (who is also Humayun Kabir's son), by a massive margin. Sarkar garnered 1,29,914 votes and won the seat by a staggering margin of 75,816 votes. The by-election was necessitated after Humayun Kabir, who won the 2026 assembly elections, chose to retain the Naoda constituency and vacated the Rejinagar seat.

Similarly, in the Nandigram by-election, BJP candidate Hasirani Rath secured a sweeping and landslide victory, with her winning margin crossing the one-lakh vote mark. Rath's political candidacy carries a deep emotional resonance. She is the mother of the late Chandranath Rath, a former close aide and personal assistant (PA) to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, who was shot dead just after the May 2026 assembly elections. She was fielded as the BJP candidate from this high-profile Nandigram seat, the same constituency from where Chief Minister Adhikari had previously won his general election.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh