Nandigram recorded 79.39 per cent turnout and Rejinagar 78.42 per cent by 5 pm with voters still in queue, the EC said. Votes will be counted on October 9.
Polling remained peaceful apart from “some very small incidents”, while its Complaint Monitoring System received 37 complaints and the National Grievance Service Portal 60 complaints, the poll panel said.
Sporadic scuffles between supporters of ruling and opposition parties were witnessed in both seats.
The arrest of AJUP chief Humayun Kabir in Rejinagar following a confrontation with police and Congress’s demand for total repolling in both constituencies cast a shadow over the exercise.
An official at the Chief Electoral Officer’s office said a report has been sent to the EC on the circumstances surrounding Kabir’s arrest.
Kabir, the Nowda MLA, was arrested after a heated exchange with police outside his party office. He had accused the police of acting at the behest of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and urged people to resist alleged excesses with “mugurs”, or heavy wooden clubs.Police said Kabir was neither a candidate nor an authorised election agent and accused him of trying to influence voters and incite them. His son Golam Nabi Azad is contesting Rejinagar, the seat vacated by him.
The CM said, “The Nowda MLA was detained since he violated EC rules and moved outside his booth area. Law is equal for everyone, and nobody should try to violate it.”
State Congress president Shubhankar Sarkar alleged party agents were forcibly evicted from more than 100 booths in Rejinagar.
Congress nominee Mohammad Abdullahil Kafi staged a sit-in outside Rejinagar police station demanding cancellation of the poll.
Sarkar alleged party agents were beaten up and driven out of almost all booths.
“Our Rejinagar candidate has begun a sit-in before the police station protesting the forcible eviction of our agents from over 100 booths. Later we found Congress agents were roughed up and forced to leave from almost all booths in Rejinagar,” he said.
TMC nominee Rabiul Alam Chowdhury also wrote to the EC seeking repolling, claiming that only 25 to 30 of his party’s 315 polling agents remained at their booths.
Rebel TMC candidate Safiuzzaman Sheikh and CPI(M) also alleged that their agents were not allowed in several booths.
The opposition alleged that several voters were sent back after indelible ink had been applied to their fingers without allowing them to vote.
Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury alleged that Rejinagar witnessed a new form of electoral violence.
“There is silent terror and vote-rigging in Rejinagar. No bombs were hurled, no gunshots were fired, and no blood was shed. But the police carried out terror without any hindrance and cast false votes,” he said.
Calling the election “a farce”, Chowdhury alleged that local police rigged the poll at the instigation of senior district police officers and that people were selectively allowed or prevented from entering booths based on their religion.
Accusing the police of “playing the role of BJP cadres”, he warned, “One swallow doesn’t make a summer”.
Chowdhury also described Kabir’s arrest as a “pre-planned political drama” and called the AJUP chief a “guest artist of the BJP”.
“Through this arrest, the BJP has tried to maintain his relevance, at least till the 2029 polls. He is a guest artist of the BJP and is likely to meet PM Modi after the elections are over,” he said, alleging that the episode was aimed at dividing minority voters.
Kabir had been expelled from the TMC in December last year after announcing plans to build a mosque in Murshidabad modelled on the demolished Babri Masjid. He later formed AJUP and won the assembly election.
The BJP rejected the allegations of booth capture and malpractice, accusing its rivals of trying to discredit the electoral process.
BJP spokesperson Debjit Sarkar said, “Congress knows they are going to lose, so they are preparing the ground to question the polling process.”
People witnessed violence-free, peaceful polls, he said.
In Nandigram, Congress nominee Milan Pradhan alleged “vote-loot, voters’ intimidation and biased action of the police and security forces”.
He claimed his polling agents were prevented from entering booths and police ignored complaints of intimidation.
Pradhan also alleged that nearly 100 women from Rajaram Chowk were turned away after they were told their votes had already been cast.
The Congress candidate, who is out on interim bail after being arrested in cases linked to the 2007 anti-land acquisition agitation, claimed police tried to restrict his movement and CRPF personnel beat him in front of senior officers.
“The police have taken up the task of making people vote in favour of BJP,” he said.
BJP rejected the allegations, saying the polling was peaceful and festive.
Nandigram was the epicentre of the anti-land acquisition movement that helped TMC come to power in 2011. Adhikari defeated Mamata Banerjee there in 2021 and won the seat again in the 2026 Assembly polls before retaining Bhabanipur, necessitating the bypoll.
TMC nominee Sanchita Pradhan Dey withdrew after meeting Adhikari, following which Mamata Banerjee backed Congress in that seat.
BJP fielded Hasirani Rath, mother of Chandranath, Adhikari’s aide who was shot dead two days after BJP won the Assembly polls. Rebel TMC faction and CPI also fielded candidates.
Rejinagar presented a more fragmented contest, with BJP nominee Sakharav Sarkar, TMC’s Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, rebel TMC candidate Safiuzzaman Sheikh, Congress’s Kafi, CPI(M)’s Syed Asad Ali and AJUP’s Azad in the fray.
State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya predicted a record winning margin in Nandigram and a comfortable victory in Rejinagar.
