BJP sweeps Bengal bypolls, makes breakthrough in Muslim-majority Rejinagar, retains Nandigram | India News

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won both the West Bengal assembly bypolls, retaining the Nandigram constituency with a larger vote share, and making a breakthrough in the Muslim-majority Rejinagar seat.Rejinagar Records a BJP BreakthroughIn Murshidabad —the district with the state’s highest Muslim population at 66.27% —the Rejinagar assembly constituency broke all records after a Hindu won the bypoll and also scored the highest tally, widest margin of victory since 2011 — when a delimitation exercise created the constituency.Shankharavh Sarkar secured 1,29,914 votes by 6.30 pm, staying ahead of his nearest rival, Golam Nabi Azad of the Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP), by 75,816 votes. The Mamata All India Trinamool Congress came fourth with only 3,847 votes, while the Congress secured the third position with 6,168 votes.On October 6, when the bypoll was held, voter turnout exceeded 80%, of which around 70% were believed to be Muslim.Also read: Nandigram bypoll result: BJP's Hasirani Rath leads in early trends for key West Bengal seatPolitical Reactions and Malpractice ClaimsChief minister Suvendu Adhikari, who campaigned in Rejinagar and Nandigram, said the BJP’s victory in both seats pointed to the minority community’s urge to support his government.“We could not have won Rejinagar by such a large margin had a major chunk of the votes not come from the minority community,” Adhikari told reporters. “The divisive politics of the opposition, who said that BJP would detain Muslims and send them to Bangladesh, has been proved to be false in the last five months. As a result of this, Muslims want to return to the main stream and work with the government. They want to make friendship with the government. I am happy,” he said.The Mamata All India Trinamool Congress did not contest the Nandigram bypoll and supported the Congress as its candidate left the race. The party’s spokesperson, Baiswanar Chattopadhyay, alleged that the Rejinagar election was marked by malpractice. “Was it an election in Rejinagar? The exercise was a farce. Genuine voters could not cast their votes. These numbers are absurd. In one of the polling booths, the number of votes polled by the BJP is more than the number of listed voters,” Chattopadhyay said.Adhikari dismissed the allegation. “One of the news channels aired this allegation and rendered an apology after checking the facts. The media should not fall for such propaganda,” Adhikari said.Also read: BJP sweeps Nandigram, Rejinagar bypolls with big wins for Hasirani Rath, Shankharavh SarkarBackground to the Rejinagar BypollThe bypoll was held because Azad’s father, Humanyan Kabir, who formed AJUP, won from Murshidabad’s Nowda as well as Rejinagar in April this year but retained Nowda. Of the 239,676 Rejinagar voters who turned up in April, 123,536 voted for Kabir, a popular leader among Muslims, and only 64,660 votes went to his nearest rival, BJP’s Bapan Ghosh. Mamata Banerjee’s party, then called the TMC, came third with 41,718 votes.Following the election results, Kabir claimed the CM worked over the last two months to ensure the BJP candidate won the bypoll.“This is not a people’s mandate; the police administration was used to ensure the victory of the BJP in the seat,” he said.Also read: Bypoll campaigns for 5 assembly, 1 Lok Sabha seats come to an end; polls open Oct 6Nandigram Results and Vote-Share GainsIn Nandigram, BJP‘s Hasirani Rath defeated Congress nominee Milan Pradhan by 1,22,753 votes, polling 1,64,427 against 41,674. In Rejinagar, BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar defeated Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) nominee Golam Nabi Azad by 75,816 votes, securing 1,29,914 against 54,098.The BJP’s vote share rose from around 27% to 63% in Rejinagar and from approximately 50% to 76% in Nandigram between the Assembly election and the bypoll.The rebel Trinamool faction, now called the Democratic Trinamool Congress, could not make an impact in either seat, although many of its MLAs are Muslims. The DTC secured only 853 votes in Nandigram and its candidate Ehteshmul Haque came fifth.At Rejinagar, DTC’s Safiuzzaman Saikh came sixth with 2,044 votes. HT reached out to DTC but did not receive a response till the time of print.