Bypolls Held Across Multiple States With High Voter Turnout and Demands for Repoll in Bengal

Bypolls for two Assembly seats in West Bengal on Tuesday drew demands for a repoll from the Opposition over alleged vote-rigging, alongside the arrest of Aam Janata Unnayan Party chief Humayun Kabir. The Nandigram seat in Purba Medinipur district recorded about 80.87% turnout, while Rejinagar in Murshidabad registered about 80.07% polling, according to Election Commission officials. Soon after polling began, Kabir was arrested by police in Rejinagar after he accused officers of interfering with voting at multiple polling stations. Kabir told reporters that the police were intimidating workers and voters before his arrest, though he was later released at around 9 pm. His son Gulam Nabi Azad is the AJUP candidate from Rejinagar. The by-elections in the two West Bengal seats were needed after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari resigned from Nandigram to retain Bhabanipur, and Kabir vacated Rejinagar while keeping his Nowda seat. Opposition candidates raised multiple complaints of irregularities during the polling. Congress Nandigram candidate Milan Pradhan alleged that genuine voters were blocked while booths were captured by BJP agents with police help. Pradhan was recently arrested in old cases linked to the 2007 Nandigram land-acquisition agitation before being released on interim bail. In Rejinagar, Congress candidate Abdullahil Kafi staged a sit-in protest near the police station over similar booth-capture allegations. Trinamool Congress candidate Rabiul Alam Chowdhury wrote to the state chief electoral officer demanding a repoll, and Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar also demanded a repoll in both seats. Chief Minister Adhikari and the BJP rejected the Opposition allegations. Adhikari stated that polling was peaceful and claimed his party would cross the margin of his 2016 win. The BJP fielded Hansirani Rath, mother of a murdered aide of Adhikari, as its candidate in Nandigram. The ruling party accused the Opposition of wanting old violent polling days to return to the state.

Tamil Nadu and Other States

Tamil Nadu held voting in the Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly bypolls, which were largely peaceful except for EVM glitches and isolated disputes. Madurantakam recorded 86.26% turnout and Dharapuram registered 80.30% polling. Both seats are Scheduled Caste-reserved constituencies vacated by AIADMK legislators who crossed over to Vijay's TVK party. Those two leaders, Maragatham Kumaravel in Madurantakam and P Sathyabama in Dharapuram, ran as TVK candidates. Facing his first major electoral test, Vijay campaigned for four days across the two seats. DMK chief M K Stalin and AIADMK chief Edappadi K Palaniswami also campaigned actively. In Dharapuram, an election official was replaced after a complaint that the official directed an elderly voter toward the whistle symbol. In Puducherry, the Thattanchavady Assembly bypoll recorded 80.81% polling after being vacated by AINRC chief and Chief Minister N Rangasamy, who kept his Mangalam seat. In Assam, the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat bypoll saw 76% turnout till 5 pm following the resignation of Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who later won a state Assembly seat on a BJP ticket. Counting of votes for all bypolls is scheduled for October 9.

Context

Assembly and parliamentary by-elections are routinely held when elected representatives vacate a seat due to winning multiple constituencies or resigning for other political moves. High voter turnouts are common in many Indian regional contests, while allegations of irregularities and demands for repolls frequently accompany high-stakes local elections.