Saturday marked an eventful last day of withdrawal of nominations which witnessed the flip-flop of Banerjee’s Rejinagar candidate over withdrawal from poll race, the arrest of an Independent candidate in the same seat and the judicial remand of the Congress nominee in Nandigram, effectively throwing him out of the campaign phase of the elections.
Polling in both constituencies is scheduled for October 6, with counting on October 9. The scrutiny of nomination papers took place on September 17 and 18.
The bypolls were necessitated after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari vacated Nandigram, which he had won alongside Bhabanipur, while Rejinagar fell vacant after AJUP chief Humayun Kabir retained Nawda after winning both seats in the 2026 Assembly elections.
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In Nandigram, the fight is likely to be four-cornered following the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC faction extending support to the Congress, with BJP, Left and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Trinamool camp each pitching their respective candidates.
The contest in Nandigram, of course, has acquired significant dimensions after Congress nominee Milan Pradhan was arrested and jailed on the basis of four 19-year-old pending arrest warrants connecting him to serious offences allegedly committed during the 2007 land agitation in the region.The arrest took place on Friday, shortly after Banerjee extended her faction’s support to the Congress in Nandigram, which was prompted by her own nominee, Sanchita Pradhan Dey, withdrawing from the race.
Banerjee described the Congress as a “natural alliance” partner and maintained that the “decision to support Congress was taken before; only the party did not know about it”.
The BJP has fielded Hasirani Rath, mother of Chandranath Rath, the former aide of Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari who was gunned down earlier this year.
Her candidature gives the BJP campaign an emotional dimension in a constituency that remains closely identified with Adhikari’s political rise. Adhikari had defeated Mamata Banerjee in Nandigram in the 2021 assembly polls by a margin of 1956 votes before going on to humiliate the TMC supremo at her own backyard in Bhabanipur five years later.
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Ritabrata Banerjee-led TMC faction – now temporarily allotted the nomenclature Democratic Trinamool Congress by the EC till it disposes of the claims for the party’s name, insignia and other assets by the two rival factions – has fielded Mohammad Eteshamul Haque who will be contesting under ‘Envelope’ symbol.
The Left, which has fared poorly in its erstwhile bastion Nandigram during the past few polls, has nominated CPI’s Shantigopal Giri.
The situation in Rejinagar temporarily became curious on Saturday when Rabiul Alam Chowdhury, the candidate for the Banerjee-led TMC faction, announced his withdrawal from the polls, citing pressure on party workers and difficulties associated with contesting under the faction’s new electoral symbol.
He, however, reversed the decision within hours after speaking to the TMC supremo and said he would remain in the contest at her direction.
Chowdhury, who later said he would start campaigns even with 10 workers by his side, will now contest the polls under the EC-anointed Mamata All India Trinamool Congress and ‘football player’ symbol.
The AJUP has fielded Ghulam Nabi Azad (Robin), son of party chief and former TMC leader Humayun Kabir, in Rejinagar.
Robin’s candidature is significant because Kabir had won the Rejinagar seat in the 2026 Assembly elections by a margin of nearly 59,000 votes. His son’s entry into the poll fray allows the party to test its organisational strength in a constituency where Kabir has considerable sway and a sizeable minority support base.
The party, though, faced an electoral-symbol complication with the EC replacing its earlier allotted ‘whistle’ with ‘table’, amid the wider dispute over party symbols following the 2026 political realignment.
The poll watchdog has now officially allotted the ‘whistle’ symbol to Tamil Nadu CM Thalapathy Vijay’s political party TVK, a move slammed by Kabir as a “conspiracy”.
“The EC, through all sorts of dirty tricks and conspiracies, has taken away our original symbol, the ‘whistle’, and instead allotted us the ‘table’ symbol today,” Kabir wrote on social media.
“However, the administration’s mean-spirited approach and conspiracies cannot stop the AJUP or our fighting spirit. The people of Rejinagar are with us, and they will give a befitting reply to these actions by pressing the button on the EVM,” he added.
The BJP has fielded Sakharav Sarkar, a former Murshidabad district president, from Rejinagar and is seeking to expand the party’s footprint in a constituency where it finished second in the 2026 polls.
The Ritabrata Banerjee-led TMC faction has nominated Safiuzzaman Sheikh while the Congress has fielded Mohammad Abdullahil Kafi in this multi-pronged contest. The CPI(M) has offered a ticket to Syed Asad Ali.
Meanwhile, during a routine vehicle check in the Hariharpara area on Saturday, an independent candidate of Rejinagar was arrested. Police claimed to have recovered illegal firearms, several rounds of ammunition and counterfeit currency from his possession.
The arrested man, sources said, is also a block president of AJUP, and was seemingly fielded as a dummy candidate of the party.
The two seats will test not only the BJP’s ability to consolidate its gains after the 2026 Assembly polls, but also the competing claims of the two TMC factions.
While Nandigram has acquired added significance after Banerjee decided to back Congress, turning the contest into a direct test of the opposition’s ability to take on the BJP, the presence of rival TMC candidates in Rejinagar threatens to split the party’s traditional support base.
