Bengal by-polls: BJP win no surprise, but Congress makes noticeable gains

• BJP’s victories in Nandigram and Rejinagar come as little surprise, but Congress finishes second in Nandigram, ahead of TMC and Left.

• Congress’s near-50,000 votes in Nandigram mark significant improvement, despite candidate Milan Pradhan’s arrest before polling.

• Opposition leaders allege rigging, intimidation and police interference in both constituencies, BJP rejects charges.

The BJP’s victories in Nandigram and Rejinagar may have been widely anticipated, but the Congress’s performance has emerged as one of the more significant political developments of the by-elections in West Bengal.

Finishing second in Nandigram, ahead of both the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Left, the Congress has shown signs of a recovery in a state where its political base has steadily eroded. The results, however, have been accompanied by allegations of rigging, intimidation and the misuse of police machinery, with Opposition leaders questioning the fairness of the electoral process.

BJP candidate Hasirani Rath won Nandigram by a margin of 1,22,136 votes after 15 rounds of counting. The Congress secured nearly 50,000 votes. For the party, which finished fifth in the constituency in the recent Assembly election, the move to second place marks a notable improvement.

The result has revived questions about whether the Congress can rebuild its political base in Bengal. Its improved showing is particularly significant given that the party's candidate Milan Pradhan was arrested shortly before polling in connection with a 19-year-old case. He spent 12 days in jail before receiving interim bail. Congress leaders have argued that the arrest, which came after the TMC decided to support the party's candidate, highlighted the pressure faced by the Opposition.

Former state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury described the result as a moral victory. “The Congress candidate was arrested in complete defiance of the law. Milan Pradhan secured support in Nandigram and managed to finish second. We consider this a moral victory,” he said.

Adhir also alleged that voters had faced intimidation during the election. “Terror prevailed in the name of the election. There was no bloodshed, but a silent reign of terror,” he said, describing the polling in Nandigram as “a farce in the name of an election”.

Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari dismissed suggestions that the Congress had made significant gains. “The Congress is a dead party. Even touring every neighbourhood with Rahul Gandhi won't help,” he said. He claimed that TMC supporters had voted for the Congress, rather than the party attracting a new section of voters.

In Rejinagar, meanwhile, allegations of electoral malpractice have intensified the controversy surrounding the by-elections. Humayun Kabir, chairman of the AJUP, alleged that the BJP had relied on intimidation and police action to influence the result. He claimed that nearly 100 of his party's workers had been arrested during the election period, with 64 still in police custody.

“If there was a free and fair election, BJP could have won by 35,000 in Nandigram and we would have won with 45,000 votes in Rejinagar,” Kabir said. He further alleged that the BJP, with police assistance, had “captured 101 of 206 booths in Rejinagar” and terrorised voters to secure what he described as a forced mandate.

Kabir also rejected Adhikari's claim that Muslim voters had supported the BJP. “Suvendu Adhikari is saying Muslims voted for him, but I am telling you they are blatantly lying,” he said.

CPI(M) MLA Mustafisur Rehman also alleged booth-level malpractice, claiming the BJP had rigged 109 booths in Rejinagar, rather than the 101 cited by Kabir. He questioned how the BJP could have won booths where more than 98 per cent of voters were Muslim. “A day will come when these things won't happen and we will wait for that day,” he said.

The BJP has rejected the allegations, maintaining that the Opposition is attempting to manufacture excuses for its defeat.

A separate controversy erupted after the Congress accused BJP candidate Sakharov Sarkar of casting multiple votes at polling booths in Rejinagar. The party released a video to support its allegation, but National Herald could not independently verify the footage. Sarkar maintained he had visited booths to check whether voting machines were functioning properly.

Defending him, Adhikari dismissed the video as “frivolous”. “He went to check the voting machine; a specific audio commentary was simply superimposed on the footage,” he said. Challenging the Congress to prove its allegation, he asked, “Can you prove that he actually cast a vote?”

The Left, meanwhile, remained behind the Congress in Nandigram but registered a modest improvement in its vote tally. Its candidate, Shanti Gopal Giri, secured around 5,000 votes during counting, compared with 2,977 in the recent Assembly election. The figure remained below the 6,267 votes won by Minakshi Mukherjee in 2021, but suggested some recovery.