BJP Wins Nandigram and Rejinagar While TVK Leads in Tamil Nadu Bypolls

Families across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Puducherry received the defining verdicts of a high-stakes electoral showdown on Friday, October 9, 2026, as the Election Commission of India published final and leading tallies from a bruising round of assembly and parliamentary bypolls. The contests, triggered by earlier resignations, defections, and political realignments, delivered a profound realignment of power that reshaped the legislative map in multiple states just months after new administrations took the oath of office.

In West Bengal, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party secured resounding victories in both the Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly seats following elections on October 6 that recorded turnouts of 80.89 per cent and 80.08 per cent respectively. BJP candidate Hasirani Rath captured the Nandigram constituency by securing 1,64,427 votes, defeating Congress nominee Milan Pradhan by a margin of 1,22,753 votes according to ECI figures. Rath is the mother of Chandranath Rath, the slain personal assistant of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari. The victory margin surpassed Adhikari's own 9,665-vote win in Nandigram during the 2026 assembly elections before he shifted to retain Bhabanipur. Meanwhile, in Rejinagar, BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar won after all 15 rounds of counting were completed, polling 1,29,914 votes to cement the party's grip on the industrial belt.

Down South, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam consolidated its four-month-old government by sweeping the Tamil Nadu bypolls. TVK candidate P Sathyabama won the Dharapuram assembly seat by defeating DMK candidate S Suganya by 9,471 votes after 23 rounds of counting, finishing with 66,841 votes against Suganya's 57,370 votes. In the Madurantakam assembly constituency, where voter turnout reached 86.26 per cent, TVK candidate K Maragatham Kumaravel established a lead over DMK rival I Paranthamen and AIADMK candidate S Kanitha Sampath. The Madurantakam seat had fallen vacant after former MLAs joined the TVK.

The results triggered fierce verbal clashes among political leaders as the scale of the voter shifts became clear. West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari claimed at a press conference in Nabanna that Bengali-speaking Muslims were increasingly voting for the BJP, asserting that in Rejinagar the party got around 60 per cent of the Muslim votes and in Nandigram it got around 80 per cent. Adhikari also announced plans to visit Rejinagar to lay the foundation stone for a bridge in Narkelbari and said the BJP would set up a hospital and college.

BJP national general secretary Smriti Irani addressed reporters to praise the outcome, declaring that the results proved democracy has won over mobocracy. In Tamil Nadu, however, the contest descended into a bitter public feud. TVK chief Vijay issued a statement targeting the DMK, saying the electoral victory was a vote against defamatory speech aimed at women, while DMK president M K Stalin lashed out on social media, denouncing the vote as a “blatant murder of democracy” and alleging that TVK had “blackmailed” Tamil Nadu voters, saying there would be no development in the constituency if the ruling party was defeated.

The broader electoral map saw the All India NR Congress comfortably retain the Thattanchavady assembly seat in Puducherry, where candidate Ashok Anand won by a margin of over 8,000 votes despite a turnout dip to 80.81 per cent from April's 87.2 percent. In Assam, the battle for the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat—necessitated after Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi resigned and successfully contested the Assembly elections from Dispur on a BJP ticket earlier this year—showed BJP candidate Devasish Sharma leading comfortably among 19.05 lakh electors in a contest mainly between BJP’s Devasish Sharma, Congress candidate Sibamoni Bora and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal.

Voters and local investors in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu must now prepare for a hardened political environment as the victorious parties translate these legislative mandates into policy implementation. In Nandigram and Rejinagar, the local administration faces the immediate task of restoring civil order following the sporadic clashes and voter intimidation reports that marred the October 6 polling. In Tamil Nadu, administrative focus shifts to the newly secured constituencies where TVK representatives must now deliver on development promises made under the shadow of intense legislative hostility from both the DMK and AIADMK.