BJP secures massive win in Nandigram assembly bypoll with huge victory margin

Hasirani Rath of the BJP won the Nandigram assembly by-election by a massive victory gap of more than one lakh twenty-two thousand votes, according to election results released on Friday. Rath secured one lakh sixty-four thousand four hundred twenty-seven votes in this key electoral seat located in West Bengal's Purba Medinipur district, beating her closest opponent Milan Pradhan of the Congress who got forty-one thousand six hundred seventy-four votes.

The Contest

Every other candidate in the race lost their security deposits, including representatives from the Left Front, the ISF, and the rebel Trinamool Congress group known as the Democratic Trinamool Congress. Santi Gopal Giri of the CPI ended up a distant third, managing only five thousand seven hundred seventy-nine votes. The contest gained heavy emotional weight because Rath is the mother of Chandranath Rath, the slain personal assistant to Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari who was shot dead by gunmen in Madhyamgram near Kolkata on May sixth. This vote happened because Adhikari chose to keep his Bhabanipur seat after winning Nandigram during the general assembly elections earlier.

Context

Nandigram holds a central place in West Bengal politics due to past land protests that brought the Trinamool Congress to power fifteen years ago, and it previously witnessed a fierce battle between Adhikari and Mamata Banerjee. This win follows the BJP taking power in the state four months ago and coincides with their victory in Rejinagar, marking a key political test for the ruling party.