BJP Gains Upper Hand in Nandigram and Rejinagar By‑polls, Sources Say

Sources monitoring the by‑election count in West Bengal’s Nandigram and Rejinagar seats have reported that the Bharatiya Janata Party is maintaining a solid lead in both contests. In Nandigram, BJP’s Hasirani Rath is ahead of the Congress challenger Milon Pradhan, while the Trinamool Congress abstained from fielding a candidate after the recent state assembly elections.

Rejinagar, a constituency with a Muslim voter base exceeding 65%, shows BJP’s Sakharav Sarkar ahead of Congress’s Mohammed Abdullahil Qafi by an estimated margin of around 6,000 votes. The voting took place on 6 October, and the counting began at 8 a.m. on Friday, starting with postal ballot verification followed by electronic vote tabulation.

The entire counting exercise is divided into 15 phases, and officials anticipate that the final picture will emerge between noon and 1 p.m., when the last batch of results is expected to be released.