BJP’s Nandigram assembly by-election candidate Hasirani Rath trounced her nearest rival, Milan Pradhan of the Congress, by a record margin of 1,22,753 votes, as the EC declared the results on Friday.
Rath, mother of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s slain personal assistant Chandranath Rath, polled 1,64,427 votes in the politically significant constituency in West Bengal’s Purba Medinipur district against Pradhan’s 41,674.
All other candidates, including those of the Left Front, ISF, and the rebel TMC faction — Democratic Trinamool Congress — lost their deposits. CPI candidate Santi Gopal Giri finished a distant third with 5,779 votes.
The result marks a significant consolidation of the BJP’s position in Nandigram, which has occupied a key place in West Bengal’s political narrative since the anti-land acquisition movement helped propel the Trinamool Congress to power in 2011.
The constituency subsequently became the site of a high-profile electoral battle between Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee, with the BJP leader defeating the then CM in the 2021 assembly elections.
Rath’s candidature carried an emotional dimension after her son was shot dead by gunmen in Madhyamgram on the outskirts of Kolkata on May 6, two days after the BJP won the West Bengal assembly elections.
The bypoll was necessitated after Adhikari, who won Nandigram in the 2026 assembly elections, retained Bhabanipur.
The BJP’s victory in Nandigram, alongside its breakthrough in Muslim-majority Rejinagar, marks an important electoral test for the party barely four months after it came to power in West Bengal, replacing the TMC after 15 years in office.
-PTI
