In West Bengal, the Bharatiya Janata Party has the support of 207 MLAs in the 294-member Assembly. Two constituencies are up for bypolls, a situation created because the elected representatives won from other constituencies in the State elections earlier this year.
Editorial | Freezing democracy: On the Election Commission of India and West Bengal
The main parties in the fray are the BJP, the Trinamool Congress, the Congress, and the Left. This is the first election in which former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool will fight on the symbol of a footballer rather than its flowers-and-grass insignia.
Nandigram: a fight for prestige
The Nandigram Assembly seat, with 17 panchayats, has about 2.5 lakh people, of whom about 27% of the electorate is Muslim. This is Suvendu Adhikari’s home district.
Mr. Adhikari has stated several times that the constituency is a prestige fight for him.
The constituency
During the Vietnam War that peaked in the 1960s, West Bengal’s Left Front, powerful in the State then, protested on behalf of the country, with the slogan: “Amar naam, tomar naam, Vietnam, Vietnam [My name, your name, Vietnam, Vietnam].” In 2007, during the movement against forcible land acquisition for a chemical hub, which saw 14 people die, the Left Front government was still in power.
But this time, the same slogan went against it: it became “Amar naam, tomar naam, Nandigram, Nandigram [My name your name, Nandigram, Nandigram].”
Nandigram, a predominantly rural Assembly constituency in coastal Purba Medinipur district of West Bengal, has been synonymous with political change. The fight against forcible land acquisition brought the downfall of the Left Front government in 2011.
In 2021, when Mr. Adhikari defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by a margin of 1,956 votes in Nandigram, the constituency brought to the fore a new leader.
In 2026, he contested and won the seat by a margin of about 9,665 votes. Since he was elected from two constituencies, Nandigram and Bhabanipur, he decided to represent Bhabanipur, where he defeated Ms. Banerjee again.
Key candidates
The BJP has fielded Hasirani Rath, the mother of Mr. Adhikari’s slain personal assistant.
Ms. Hasirani has an emotional appeal because she lost her son in the post-poll violence in West Bengal this year. Her son, Chandranath Rath, was shot dead at point-blank range on May 6, just two days after the BJP came to power in the State for the first time, ending the 15-year-old Mamata Banerjee rule.
“This place has been nurtured by Suvendu Adhikari. Of course he is the only one who will win here,” Ms. Hashirani says, after she offered puja at 13 local temples in the constituency as part of her poll campaign in the last week of September.
“Most people in Nandigram have spontaneously accepted me as the daughter of Nandigram and the mother of their homes,” Ms. Hasirani says.
She insists that Adhikari will remain the leader of the people of Nandigram, and it is not victory that she is concerned about. “We want the margin of the victory to be 1.5 lakh votes,” she adds.
The Chief Minister had urged the people of Nandigram to ensure the highest-ever margin of victory in the constituency.
Former CM Banerjee initially announced her support for Sanchita Pradhan Dey, who withdrew from the contest. Then she supported the Congress nominee from Nandigram, Milan Pradhan. Within hours, he was arrested in a 19-year-old case. He was a leader and activist who was part of Nandigram’s land movement in 2007. Mr. Pradhan has been sent to judicial custody till October 3. His bail plea at the Calcutta High Court was denied on September 22.
“He has always been here at public events; why was he not arrested before? Why arrest him now when he became the Congress candidate?” Arpita, his wife, said in a video message shared by State Congress leaders.
The Left Front has fielded Communist Party of India’s Shanti Gopal Giri for the bypoll.
Key issues and campaign
In the Nandigram bypoll, the Congress is running its campaign on its candidate being arrested by the West Bengal police. “We are all Milan Pradhan. He cannot be here because he was wrongfully arrested. We are all standing here as the candidate,” a campaign member of the Congress said while asking people to vote in the party’s favour.
“Even Mamata didi has asked everyone to support our candidate,” the Congress workers tell people of Nandigram as they go from house to house. The arrest of Pradhan has brought the Congress leadership in West Bengal together and evoked a strong response from the party’s high command. Leader of Opposition in Parliament, Rahul Gandhi, called it “political revenge, the murder of democracy”.
“The BJP has no faith in fair elections — that’s why it wants to cling to power, sometimes through vote theft, sometimes through stealing governments, and sometimes through stealing parties,” Mr. Gandhi said on X.
Meanwhile, the BJP is driving its by-poll campaign on the emotional appeal of a mother who has lost her child. Mr. Adhikari accompanied Hasirani when she filed her nomination papers.
Addressing a gathering after the nomination, the Chief Minister exuded confidence by saying that the BJP will win by “such a big margin in Nandigram that no one has ever imagined”. He said that Chandranath Rath’s biggest sin was that he was his aide.
He promised to fulfil all the promises made to the people of Nandigram.
What the electorate says
Purnima, 50, from Gopalchak area in Nandigram is emotional about the mother’s loss. “A mother lost her child in these politics. We are bound to vote for her,” she says.
Amina Bibi, 65, from the Mohammadpur area says that people of Nandigram have always spoken truth to power and she does not shy away from speaking the truth now.
“I fought shoulder to shoulder with Suvendu during the Nandigram protests. But since he became CM, he has not dared to come back here because he knows he has not done anything for us,” she says. A man in his mid-50 from Mohammadpur in Nandigram who did not want to be named, says, “This is not a democracy where there is no fair election and people are not allowed to participate. In a democracy every candidate should get a fair chance to campaign and contest. That is missing here.”
Rejinagar: wall graffiti speaks
In Rejinagar, walls bear the graffiti of Opposition parties, but the BJP is the only party actively campaigning.
| Photo Credit:
Senjuti Sengupta
Rejinagar constituency has over 2.56 Lakh voters and about 69% of the electorate in the constituency are Muslim voters. The Bhagirathi river, a distributary of Ganga passes through the constituency, which spans over two blocks: Beldanga I and II, comprising nearly 14 panchayats. A predominately rural constituency, the region has little employment opportunities and youth migrate for work.
The constituency
Rejinagar is located less than 15 kilometres from Plassey, where a war between the East India Company and Nawab Siraj-u-Daullah of Murshidabad almost 270 years changed the history of the subcontinent forever.
The constituency, located in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district, was a highlight of the 2026 Assembly polls. Aam Janata Unnyan Party (AJUP) leader Humayun Kabir’s had attempted to construct a mosque styled on the lines of the Babri masjid in Ayodhya.
Mr. Kabir’s campaign in the 2026 Assembly polls on the issue of construction of the mosque, split the Muslim votes, polarised Hindus, and eventually was one of the reasons that led to fall of the 15-year-old Trinamool Congress government. Kabir, who was expelled from the Trinamool Congress, set up AJUP and won elections from Naoda and Rejinagar in the district. He vacated Rejinagar where his margin of victory was over 58,000 votes.
The project of construction of the Babri-style mosque next to a national highway has been stalled and the site that had hundreds of people thronging before the Assembly polls, is desolate.
The constituency had witnessed violent protests during the anti-CAA [Citizenship Amendment Act] protests in 2019. In 2024 there was an explosion during a Ram Navami procession, which left about 20 people injured.
Key candidates
The by-polls at Rejinagar have been necessitated after Humayun Kabir resigned from his Rejinagar seat on June 4. The AJUP chairperson has fielded his son Golam Nabi Azad. Neither is campaigning in a big way, saying there is intimidation by the administration, controlled by the ruling party.
The Banerjee-backed faction of the Trinamool Congress has fielded Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, a former MLA, as their candidate. Chowdhury had represented the seat for three terms, first being elected from the Congress in 2011, and later as a Trinamool Congress nominee. Chowdhury too had said he would withdraw from the contest, but later decided to reconsider, after intervention from Banerjee.
Congress fielded Abdullahil Kafi, Leader of the Opposition from the Murshidabad Zila Parishad. The Ritabrata Banerjee-led TMC faction (Democratic TMC) fielded Safiuzzaman S.K.
CPI (M) has fielded Saeed Asad Ali. The BJP is hoping for a split of minority votes and that a polarisation of Hindu votes will make way for its victory, the BJP is banking on a polarisation of Hindu votes and have fielded Sakharav Sarkar.
Key issues and campaign
The leaders of the AJUP and Banerjee-backed Trinamool Congress have alleged intimidation by the police and said that they are not being allowed to contest. Mr. Kabir has decided to stay away from the campaigning, accusing the local police of slapping fake cases against his workers and arresting them.
According to Mr. Kabir, “Fifteen of my workers have been arrested by the police, while many have fled to other places fearing the police’s constant threats. This is terrifying. Police are picking up everyone they see with me. They have become the BJP’s agents. I can’t risk my workers’ lives,” he says. The MLA was also called for questioning to Berhampore Police Station on September 21 and 23, in relation to a viral audio clip that pointed to subject matter pertaining to communal tension.
Mr. Kabir adds that his son is still visiting some areas, “But we stopped major campaigning. I will communicate with people and campaign for my son through Facebook only,” he says.
On September 19, West Bengal police arrested Saiful Islam, an independent candidate from Rejinagar, who has close associations with the AJUP leadership. While the graffiti of the Opposition candidates has come up all across the constituency, the only candidate who is actively campaigning is the BJP’s Sarkar.
While the party offices of the candidates in Opposition wear a desolate look, the party office of the BJP at Rejinagar is bustling with activity. “TMC has not done anything for this area in the last 15 years. Humayun Kabir’s corruption has also been exposed. He duped people of crores in the name of his Babri Masjid replica project. The public is not foolish. They want a change,” Sarkar says. The BJP candidate says that he is fighting this election on a development pitch and getting good response from people across communities.
While Mr. Sakharav is campaigning across the constituency, the graffiti of Opposition candidates — the hammer and sickle of CPI(M), hand of Congress, football player of Ms. Banerjee’s All India Trinamool Congress, and whistle of AJUP — are on the walls of Rejinagar.
What the electorate says
Mohsin Sheikh, who resides near Beldanga Police Station in Rejinagar, says, “The election looks very different this time. There is not much show of parties and their candidates, unlike previous elections. A strange silence has captured the area.”
There are voters who lament the lack of development in the region, health facilities, and transport. “The nearest hospital in our area is 5-6 km away. Those who stay in the part of the constituency which is connected to the national highway may still get proper transport to reach there in emergency cases. But what about the people from the other side of the river?” says Nafisa Bibi, who runs a teashop at Saktipur village, which is around 12 km from the ferry-ghat.
Hamid, a street vendor, stops at the boundary of the under-construction mosque. “It was a good initiative. When it’s completed, everybody will come to pray here from even the neighbouring districts. Our business will grow,” he says, as he prepares his jhaalmuri mix.
shrabana.chatterjee@thehindu.co.in
senjuti.sengupta@thehindu.co.in
Edited by Sunalini Mathew and Amarjot Kaur
