Bengal Assembly: BJP Gains Two New Members Today

West Bengal's Legislative Assembly will welcome two new BJP members on Wednesday, as Hasirani Rath and Sakharao Sarkar take oath following their victories in the Nandigram and Rejinagar by-elections.

Speaker Rathindra Bose will administer the oath to the two legislators in the Assembly. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari will be present for the proceedings before heading to Nabanna for a cabinet meeting.

The by-elections were conducted on October 6 in Nandigram, East Medinipur district, and Rejinagar, Murshidabad district. Results were declared on October 9. The addition of these two MLAs takes the BJP's tally in the 294-member House to 209.

Rath's margin of 122,753 votes in Nandigram is being described as a record. Sarkar's margin of 75,816 votes in Rejinagar has also drawn notice, particularly because minority voters form more than 65 percent of the constituency's total voters.

The Chief Minister had said the results reflected growing trust among minority voters in the BJP, pointing to development work done in the first five months of the new government. He also argued that minority voters were realising they had been misled by previous ruling parties, which he said had portrayed the BJP as a communal force instead of focusing on the community's overall progress.

He credited women voters from the minority community, many of whom had benefited from the Annapurna scheme, with supporting the BJP alongside their family members in both by-election seats.

Hasirani Rath is also the mother of Chandranath Rath, a former executive assistant to Suvendu Adhikari, who was shot dead on the evening of May 6 in Madhyamgram, North 24 Parganas district.