BJP sweeps Bengal bypolls: wins Nandigram by over 1.2 lakh votes, takes Rejinagar too

BJP’s Hasirani Rath wins Nandigram by 1,22,753 votes. Get the full Bengal bypoll result, including the party’s surprise win in Rejinagar

PGurus Newsdesk

October 9, 2026

Fragmented Opposition, Big BJP Wins: What the Bengal Bypolls Show

How did the BJP win Rejinagar, a seat with a nearly 70% Muslim electorate? Read the margins, the claims and the opposition’s response

The BJP has won both West Bengal Assembly bypolls, taking Nandigram by a margin of more than 1.2 lakh votes and also winning Rejinagar, a Muslim-majority seat where the party was not expected to do well.

Nandigram: a record margin

After all 17 rounds of counting, BJP candidate Hasirani Rath was ahead of Congress nominee Milan Pradhan, who was backed by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee, by 1,22,753 votes. The win was largely expected, but the BJP tried to give it wider meaning by making Muslim voters the focus of its campaign.

Rejinagar: a surprise in a Muslim-majority seat

In Rejinagar, a Murshidabad district seat with an electorate that is nearly 70 per cent Muslim, BJP’s Shankharavh Sarkar was ahead of AJUP nominee Golam Nabi Azad by 75,816 votes after all 15 rounds. The margin stands in sharp contrast to the last Assembly election. Then, AJUP chief Humayun Kabir won Rejinagar by more than 58,000 votes.

According to the BJP candidate, the result challenged the assumption that a Muslim-majority seat would not elect a BJP candidate. Like his Nandigram colleague, he called the victory a mandate for development.

What it says about the opposition

PTI’s analysis was that the bypolls exposed the weakness of a fragmented opposition. The Federal noted that the two wins gave the BJP an optics advantage, letting it present itself as more than a party that depends on Hindu consolidation.