BJP's 'historic' Bengal win: How saffron party consolidated Nandigram grip, emerged triumphant in Muslim-majority Rejinagar

The Bharatiya Janata Party's 'dream' run in West Bengal continued as the outcome for the just-concluded Assembly by-elections in Nandigram and Rejinagar showed the overwhelming margin by which the saffron party's candidates secured victories. Now, the BJP has 209 MLAs in the 294-member assembly in the state. The bypolls were the first electoral test of the BJP government since it replaced the TMC after 15 years in power. The BJP won the Nandigram and Rejinagar seats in Bengal on Friday. Its candidates Hasirani Rath secured 1,64,427 votes, while Shankharavh Sarkar secured 1,29,914 votes in Nandigram and Rejinagar, respectively, according to the data from the Election Commission of India (ECI). The much-pronounced shift The outcome for the Assembly by-elections in Nandigram and Rejinagar underlined the BJP's expanding political reach in West Bengal barely four months after ending TMC's 15-year rule, as a fragmented opposition struggled to mount a challenge in the ruling party's first electoral test. The twin victories carries politically significant messages: in Nandigram, the BJP consolidated its hold over a constituency central to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari's political rise; while in Rejinagar, it signalled its ability to expand beyond its traditional electoral base. Emphatic victories Hasirani Rath, the BJP candidate in Nandigram and mother of Adhikari's slain personal assistant Chandranath Rath, won by 1,22,753 votes, polling 1,64,427 against 41,674 for Congress nominee Milan Pradhan, backed by former chief minister Mamata Banerjee. CPI candidate Santi Gopal Giri finished third with 5,779 votes. In Rejinagar, BJP's Shankharavh Sarkar defeated Aam Janata Unnayan Party nominee Golam Nabi Azad by 75,816 votes. Sarkar secured 1,29,914 votes against 54,098 for Azad, son of AJUP founder Humayun Kabir. For the BJP, the significance of the verdict lies in the combination of consolidation and expansion: a commanding victory in Nandigram, where its chief minister built his political stature, and a breakthrough in Rejinagar, where the party had faced questions about the reach of its appeal. The outcome also sharpened the question of who can occupy the opposition space in Bengal. The TMC's defeat has disrupted a political order in which it had dominated the state for 15 years, while Congress and the Left have struggled to recover their former organisational strength. The emergence of competing TMC factions has complicated attempts to consolidate anti-BJP votes. Why a victory in Nandigram is special Nandigram has remained central to West Bengal's political narrative since the anti-land acquisition movement propelled the TMC to power in 2011, ending the Left Front's 34-year rule. The constituency subsequently became the site of one of the state's most consequential electoral battles in 2021 when Adhikari defeated Banerjee. (With agency inputs)