BJP candidate Hasirani Rath secured a historic victory in the Nandigram Assembly bypoll, winning by a record margin of 122,753 votes and surpassing Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s 2016 record. Securing 1,64,427 votes, Rath won by a record margin of 1,22,753 votes, surpassing Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s 2016 record margin of 81,230 votes. Congress candidate Milan Pradhan, backed by Mamata Banerjee’s faction, finished a distant second with 41,674 votes in the declared final count. CPI candidate Santi Gopal Giri finished third with 5,779 votes. All India Secular Front candidate Ali Md Sabe Miraj Khan secured 1,607 votes. Ehteshmul Haque of the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Democratic Trinamool Congress received 853 votes and finished fifth
Rath’s margin of 1,22,753 votes is the biggest in Nandigram since 1967. The earlier record was held by Suvendu Adhikari, who won the seat for the Trinamool Congress in 2016 by 81,230 votes.
Mamata Banerjee’s party backed Congress in Nandigram
Mamata Banerjee then announced support for Congress candidate Milan Pradhan to strengthen the INDIA alliance. Earlier reporting noted: “BJP candidate Hasi Rani Rath has won from Nandigram and has also crossed my record margin. The All India Trinamool Congress, led by Mamata Banerjee, did not field a candidate in the final Nandigram contest. This is what exactly happened.
Reacting to the result, CM Suvendu Adhikari said he had expected Rath to beat his 2016 margin. “Before the bypolls, I predicted that the victory margin for the BJP candidate this time would surpass my own record in 2016. BJP candidate Shankharavh Sarkar secured 1,29,914 votes and defeated Aam Janata Unnayan Party nominee Golam Nabi Azad by a margin of 75,816 votes. Azad finished second with 54,098 votes, according to the final figures released by the Election Commission. The BJP polled around 63.14 per cent of the total votes counted in the constituency. Live updates Earlier reporting noted: Rath polled 1,64,227 votes against Congress candidate Milan Pradhan’s 41,674 and the victory margin of over 1.22 lakh votes is the highest since 1967. The previous record was set by Adhikari himself in 2016, when he had won the seat for the Trinamool Congress by a margin of 81,230 votes.
This would not have been possible unless our candidate had secured the majority of the minority votes in Nandigram,” he said. Minorities in Nandigram have supported us and have positively accepted my request to join our movement,” Adhikari said.
Its nominee, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrew before the deadline in September. Earlier reporting noted: Chief Minister Adhikari had vacated the Nandigram seat after winning from there as well as Bhabanipur, the constituency held by Mamata All India Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
