Kolkata, 09 October (H.S.) : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has swept the high-profile West Bengal Assembly by-elections, securing crushing victories in both the Nandigram and Rejinagar constituencies. Following the conclusion of counting, BJP candidate Hasi Rani Rath clinched a historic win in Nandigram by an overwhelming margin of 1,22,753 votes. Meanwhile, in the Muslim-majority Rejinagar seat, BJP nominee Shankharavh Sarkar emerged victorious by a remarkable margin of 75,748 votes.

In Nandigram, Hasi Rani Rath, the mother of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s late personal aide, Chandranath Rath, completely shattered all previous electoral records on the seat. To put the scale of the victory in perspective, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had won the seat as a Trinamool candidate by 81,230 votes in 2016, by 1,956 votes on a BJP ticket in 2021, and by 9,665 votes in the early 2026 assembly elections. Rath’s massive mandate far surpassed those historical tallies, finishing with a total of 1,64,427 votes against Congress candidate Milan Pradhan.

Reacting to the stellar outcomes, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari stated that nationalist forces have achieved a resounding mandate across both seats. Highlighting the unexpected yet strong support from minority-concentrated areas—particularly in Rejinagar—the Chief Minister remarked that minority voters have realized previous administrations misled them, noting that welfare initiatives like the Annapurna Yojana reached citizens without any religious discrimination. He also underscored that the entire electoral and counting process was conducted transparently under the supervision of the Supreme Court.

Counting trends indicated that the BJP established a firm, unassailable lead right from the opening postal ballots and early EVM rounds. In Nandigram, the lead crossed 90,000 by the eleventh round and surpassed 1.05 lakh by the thirteenth round before culminating in the historic 1.22-lakh-plus margin. Similarly, in Rejinagar, the momentum solidified quickly, culminating in a stellar win for Shankharavh Sarkar.

The by-elections were necessitated after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari vacated the Nandigram seat to retain Bhabanipur, and Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) chief Humayun Kabir relinquished Rejinagar to keep his Nowda seat following the general assembly elections earlier this year.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh