Shankharavh Sarkar polled 1,29,914 votes against 54,098 for AJUP’s Golam Nabi Azad, with Congress and the Mamata All India Trinamool Congress far behind in Rejinagar bypoll.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!Murshidabad, October 10|CoreSignal: The Bharatiya Janata Party has won the Rejinagar Assembly bypoll in Murshidabad. Its candidate, Shankharavh Sarkar, took the seat comfortably over Golam Nabi Azad of the Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP). Counting ended on Friday, October 9, three days after polling.
Robin lost in Rejinagar Bypoll
The final Election Commission of India figures, as reported by NewsX, put Sarkar at 1,29,914 votes. Azad, popularly known as Robin and the son of AJUP founder Humayun Kabir, polled 54,098 votes. With a winning margin of 75,816 votes, Robin lost in Rejinagar by a decisive margin.
The rest of the field trailed far behind:
| Candidate | Party | Votes |
|---|---|---|
| Shankharavh Sarkar | BJP | 1,29,914 |
| Golam Nabi Azad (Robin) | AJUP | 54,098 |
| Abdullahil Kafi | Congress | 6,168 |
| Rabiul Alam Chowdhury | Mamata All India Trinamool Congress | 3,847 |
The Election Commission’s results portal at eci carries the constituency-wise figures. Rejinagar is listed as Assembly Constituency 70.
How the Counting Unfolded
The BJP led from the first round. Live updates showed Sarkar ahead by 11,033 votes after round one. By the fifth round the lead had stretched to 34,501. A mid-afternoon report had him at 61,386 votes after seven of 15 EVM rounds, 37,506 clear of Azad.
The lead never came under threat. Counting concluded by the evening, and the BJP’s win was confirmed at 6:24 pm.
A Seat Left Vacant by Humayun Kabir
The bypoll was needed because Humayun Kabir won both Rejinagar and Nowda in the 2026 Assembly election and kept only Nowda. The Election Commission announced the schedule on September 7, setting polling for October 6 and counting for October 9. A bypoll was also held in Nandigram on the same dates, after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari vacated that seat.
In the general election, Kabir took Rejinagar with 1,23,536 votes, according to IndiaVotes. The BJP’s Bapan Ghosh finished second with 64,660. This time the BJP nearly doubled that tally, while the AJUP, now fielding Kabir’s son, fell to less than half of its earlier number.
Polling Day Tension in Rejinagar Bypoll
Polling was heavy, with ThePrint reporting a turnout of 78.42 per cent by 5 pm out of 2,57,657 electors. Officials described voting as largely peaceful, though the day had its flashpoint. Kabir was arrested in Rejinagar after a heated exchange with police at his party office. Murshidabad’s superintendent of police said Kabir was neither a candidate nor an authorised agent, so he could not move around the way he had been doing, as PTI reported.
Congress candidate Kafi staged a sit-in outside Rejinagar police station that day and demanded that the bypoll be cancelled. The Election Commission sought a report on Kabir’s arrest.
A day after the vote, National Herald noted that Kabir broke down before the media and threatened to quit active politics, accusing the police and administration of favouring the BJP. The Trinamool Congress has long accused him of splitting Muslim votes to help the BJP in the Assembly election, a charge he has denied.
A Result Arriving Amid Questions Over the Election Commission’s Neutrality: Rejinagar Bypoll
The Rejinagar bypoll concluded at a moment when the credibility of the poll body is being argued over in the streets and in Parliament. An Indian Express investigation, summarised by Outlook, reported that Election Commissioners Sukhbir Singh Sandhu and Vivek Joshi formally objected at least 14 times over ten months to decisions they said were taken without their knowledge. The two are also said to have written to the Cabinet Secretary about how the Commission functions. Opposition parties, the Congress among them, have alleged that Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar used the panel to favour the ruling party. Kumar has rejected the charge.
The dissent has fed a campaign that now stretches well beyond Parliament. Indian Youth Congress workers took to the streets of Delhi demanding Kumar’s resignation, and the Congress followed with protests in cities from Delhi to Guwahati. On Friday, the day the Rejinagar bypoll was counted, INDIA bloc leaders marched towards Rashtrapati Bhavan to seek the President’s intervention. Outlook’s coverage notes that more than 20,000 police and paramilitary personnel were deployed across central Delhi, where the Cockroach Janata Party has called a separate demonstration against Kumar for Saturday.
This is not the first attempt to unseat him. In April, the Rajya Sabha Chairman and the Lok Sabha Speaker declined to admit opposition notices seeking his removal, the first time such notices had been moved in both Houses.
None of the reports on the Rejinagar bypoll link the Chief Election Commissioner to the outcome, and the counting itself drew no reported complaint. The local grievances were of a different kind. AJUP chief Humayun Kabir accused the police and administration of working in the BJP’s favour after his detention on polling day, and Congress candidate Abdullahil Kafi demanded fresh polling. Together with the national protests, they ensure the margin of 75,816 votes will be read against the wider argument over whether the Election Commission is seen to be, and is, neutral.
Figures are as reported on counting day. The Election Commission of India’s results portal remains the authoritative source for the final certified count.
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