The Bharatiya Janata Party emerged with three victories in by-elections held across six constituencies, winning two assembly seats in West Bengal and the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat in Assam, while Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) secured both assembly seats it contested in the state.
Polling across the six constituencies had been held earlier, and the counting brought sharply contrasting fortunes for the national and regional players in the fray.
BJP’s Strong Showing in Bengal and Assam
The BJP’s most commanding assembly victory came in Nandigram in West Bengal, where Hasi Rani Rath defeated Congress candidate Milan Pradhan by 122,753 votes. In Rejinagar, BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar defeated Golam Nabi Azad of the Aam Janata Unnayan Party by 75,816 votes, a politically notable outcome in a Muslim-majority constituency in Murshidabad district.
The party also retained the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency in Assam, completing its tally of three seats. Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed the victories as an endorsement of the party’s governance.
TVK’s Tamil Nadu Sweep
Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam won both the Madurantakam and Dharapuram assembly seats, with K. Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama defeating their respective Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam rivals. Both winning candidates had originally been elected on All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam tickets earlier in the year before joining Vijay’s party.
The contests were seen as an important test of the winners’ ability to retain constituency support after changing political affiliation, and Vijay presented the outcomes as public support for his administration.
Puducherry Seat Retained
The All India N.R. Congress, an ally of the BJP in the National Democratic Alliance, retained the Thattanchavady assembly constituency in Puducherry, completing the results across the six seats.
DMK president M. K. Stalin challenged Vijay’s interpretation of the Tamil Nadu outcomes and criticised the circumstances surrounding the by-elections, setting up a renewed political debate over the significance of the results in the state.
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