Counting of votes for the by-elections in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu will begin at 8 am on Friday. Though the results are unlikely to affect the respective governments, they will indicate the state's political mood after major upheavals in the recently concluded Assembly elections.
In West Bengal, Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly seats went to the polls last week. While not a referendum on the four-month-old BJP government, the Rejinagar seat has a profound impact on the Suvendu Adhikari government as the BJP left no stone unturned to wrest the muslim-dominated seat from Humayun Kabir’s Aam Janata Unnayan. The by-election in Rejinagar was necessitated after Kabir resigned the seat to retain Naoda.
In Rejinagar, Kabir’s son Ghulam Nabi Azad took on Shankharav Sarkar. Interestingly, Kabir himself appeared before the media days after the elections to claim that the BJP would win the Muslim-majority constituency in Murshidabad district. Alleging that the electoral process in Rejinagar had been unfair, Kabir said the BJP would win Rejinagar. Kabir attributed the outcome to what he alleged was the role of the administration during polling.
However, it is expected that Nandigram will be a smooth sail for the BJP, which fielded Hasirani Rath, whose son Chandranath Rath, a former aide of Adhikari, was shot dead on May 6. Rath was killed two days after the BJP won the elections. Her candidature added an emotional dimension to the contest.
The constituency also holds political significance, considering that it was at the centre of the anti-land acquisition movement that helped propel the TMC to power in 2011. Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee in the 2021 Assembly election, a feat he repeated in 2026 too. But Adhikari decided to retain Bhabanipur in South Kolkata, necessitating the bypoll.
Tamil Nadu
The counting of votes for the Madurantakam and Dharapuram Assembly by-elections in Tamil Nadu will be taken up on Friday amidst a three-tier security cover.
The results of both constituencies will hold significance for the ruling TVK, considering that the outcome of this election will further strengthen the government and will be an assessment of the C. Joseph Vijay-led government that has been in power for about 4 months. Vijay had actively toured both constituencies and engaged in the election campaign.
The DMK and AIADMK campaigned harshly to prove their relevance, with their campaigns rooting on criticising the TVK regime. The elections were necessitated after Maragatham Kumaravel, who won the Madhurantakam constituency, and Sathyabhama, who won Tarapuram, for AIADMK resigned from their posts to join the TVK.
