BJP Sweeps Bengal and Assam Bypolls, Wins Nandigram, Rejinagar and Nagaon Seats by Huge Margins

The BJP has won the bulk of the by-elections counted on 9 October, with large victories in West Bengal and Assam. In West Bengal’s Nandigram, the BJP’s Hasirani Rath won by well over a lakh votes against Congress, while the Left, ISF and a rebel Trinamool faction’s candidates lost their deposits. In Rejinagar in Murshidabad, the BJP’s Shankharavh Sarkar won by roughly 75,000 votes, polling about 63 per cent of the votes cast.

In Assam’s Nagaon Lok Sabha seat, the BJP’s Devasish Sharma defeated AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal by a very large margin. In Puducherry, the AINRC’s Ashok Anand won the Thattanchavady seat over Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the verdicts gave the NDA added strength for its welfare agenda.

West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari called the Rejinagar win a turning point in the state’s politics, and BJP leader Smriti Irani said voters had responded to mob rule. In Tamil Nadu, the ruling TVK held both seats it contested. The results come as the opposition campaigns against the Chief Election Commissioner over the voter-roll revision, and they hand the BJP a talking point against that offensive.