Kolkata, Oct 2026 : Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate Hasirani Rath has won the Nandigram Assembly bypoll in West Bengal’s East Midnapore district by a record margin of 1,22,753 votes, securing 1,64,427 votes and establishing the highest victory margin recorded in the constituency since 1967.
Congress candidate Milan Pradhan finished second with 41,674 votes, while CPI nominee Santi Gopal Giri secured third place with 5,779 votes. All India Secular Front (AISF) candidate Ali Md Sabe Miraj Khan received 1,607 votes, while the Democratic Trinamool Congress, led by Ritabrata Banerjee, finished fifth with 853 votes.
The Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) did not contest the bypoll. Its candidate, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew her nomination at the last moment, following which Mamata Banerjee announced her support for the Congress candidate.
The result surpassed the previous record victory margin in Nandigram, set by current West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in 2016. Adhikari, then a Trinamool Congress candidate, had won the seat by 81,230 votes.
Reacting to Rath’s victory, Adhikari said he had predicted before the bypoll that the BJP candidate would exceed his earlier record. He attributed the result partly to the party securing a majority of minority votes in the constituency.
In the Assembly elections held earlier this year, Adhikari had won Nandigram by a margin of 9,665 votes, securing 50.37 per cent of the votes polled. Rath’s share in the bypoll rose to 75.94 per cent, representing a reported positive swing of 25.79 percentage points for the BJP.
Adhikari had contested simultaneously from Nandigram and Bhabanipur in South Kolkata during the earlier election. He defeated Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur by a margin of slightly over 15,000 votes and subsequently chose to retain that constituency, necessitating the Nandigram bypoll.
Rath is the mother of Chandranath Rath, a former personal assistant to Adhikari who was assassinated in Madhyamgram, North 24 Parganas district, on May 6.
The Nandigram result marks a significant electoral development in the politically contested constituency, which has been a focal point of rivalry between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress.
Meanwhile, counting for the bypoll in Rejinagar Assembly constituency in Murshidabad district was still underway, with the final result yet to be announced.
