Kolkata: BJP retained Nandigram — chief minister Suvendu Adhikari’s backyard — and wrested Rejinagar from AJUP, winning both assembly bypolls in the first electoral test since coming to office in May this year.The victories take the party’s strength to 209 in the 294-member assembly, where it faces a fractured opposition, a part of which has been toeing govt line on key issues.BJP retained Nandigram after candidate Hasirani Rath won the bypoll by a record margin of 1,22,753 votes. The bypoll was necessitated by Adhikari’s decision to vacate the seat in favour of Bhabanipur. The chief minister’s victory margin in Nandigram in the April assembly polls was 9,665 votes. The decisive win followed the chief minister’s intense campaigning in the East Midnapore seat on Oct 4 and three campaign visits there in the run-up to the bypoll.Sanchita Dey Pradhan, fielded by Mamata Trinamool, withdrew from the race on Sept 17 after meeting Adhikari in Kolkata.Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, who finished second with the backing of Mamata Trinamool, spent 11 days in police custody over FIRs lodged 19 years ago. He could campaign for only four days after Calcutta High Court granted him interim bail on Sept 29. “Let him contest,” Supreme Court had remarked when the Bengal govt challenged the HC order.BJP’s comfortable win in the Muslim-dominated Nandigram and Rejinagar signals a potential shift in Bengal’s political arithmetic. In Rejinagar, BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar won by 75,816 votes, pushing AJUP, winner of the April poll, to second place. Rejinagar, in Murshidabad, has 72% Muslim voters.CM Adhikari actively campaigned in both constituencies, directly appealing to minority voters: “This is the best time to extend your hand of friendship towards us. Oct 6 is an auspicious day. You won’t get a better opportunity to hold our hands as friends. Yes, we chant ‘Jai Shree Ram’, but we don’t force you to do so. You can just say ‘Bharat Mata ki jai’.”Addressing reporters at Nabanna in the afternoon, he said, “The margin (in Rejinagar) could not have been so large had 35,000 Muslim mothers and sisters, along with their families, not voted for us. The majority of the votes we polled in Rejinagar came from minorities. We received 60% of the Muslim votes in Rejinagar and 80% in Nandigram. Bengali-speaking Muslims are voting for BJP.”He said the minorities want to join the mainstream and stand by govt. “They responded to my call for ‘Friendship Day’. They were earlier told that if BJP came to power, they would be sent to Bangladesh, detention camps would be set up for them and their religious freedom would be curbed. All these claims have been proved false over the past five months.”Adhikari expressed confidence that BJP would win the civic elections in Kolkata and Howrah, scheduled for later this year, asserting that public sentiments across Bengal are in their favour.“Next year, civic polls will be held in 110 municipalities, followed by panchayat elections in 2028. We will win all these elections and deliver all 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state to Narendra Modi in the 2029 parliamentary elections,” Adhikari declared, adding BJP expects to secure 60% of the vote share in future state elections, up from 46% in the May assembly polls.Like Nandigram, Rejinagar witnessed its share of drama. Mamata Trinamool candidate Rabiul Alam Chowdhury had announced his withdrawal from the contest, saying, “It is becoming increasingly difficult for me to motivate workers, who have been facing regular harassment. Failing to secure our party symbol — flowers and grass — and adopting a new symbol allotted by Election Commission will prove to be a major challenge in the bypoll.” He subsequently reversed his decision and contested on the ‘football player’ symbol.Chowdhury, who polled 3,847 votes, finished fourth, behind BJP, AJUP and Congress. The only consolation for Mamata Trinamool was that its breakaway faction, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, got even fewer votes — 2,044.Rejinagar witnessed drama on the polling day, too. AJUP founder Humayun Kabir, who won the seat in the April poll by 58,876 votes but vacated it in favour of Nawda, was detained by police for 11 hours and released only after voting ended. AJUP candidate Golam Nabi Azad, Kabir’s son, finished second with 54,098 votes. An exasperated Kabir said on Friday he wants to shift to Dubai now.Opposition parties alleged widespread electoral malpractice. Dismissing the bypoll results, former CM Mamata Banerjee said: “Was this even a real election? They can’t even rig votes properly! In one place, there were 772 voters, but 909 votes were cast. This is what happens when you involve police to rig elections.” Asked about Adhikari’s statements, she said, “Tell him to get his head straight first.”State Congress president Subhankar Sarkar echoed her allegations: “Today’s by-election results and the related events make one thing clear: had the voting been free and fair, BJP would have lost both seats. It was a mockery of democracy — intimidation by motorbike gangs, booth capturing and fake voting carried out with police support. We demand that both bypolls be scrapped and fresh elections held.”
