The campaign for the byelections to five Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and Puducherry, as well as to one Lok Sabha constituency in Assam, ended at 5 pm on Sunday (October 4, 2026). Polling will take place on Tuesday (October 6, 2026), and the counting of votes is scheduled for Friday (October 9, 2026).
The Muslim-majority parliamentary constituency has about 19.07 lakh voters, who can choose from among 15 candidates, including nine independents. The bypoll became necessary after Pradyut Bordoloi, who won the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat for the second successive time in 2024, quit the Congress and joined the BJP before the April 2026 Assembly election. Banerjee subsequently deciding to support Congress nominee Milan Pradhan, and the latter then being arrested in connection with a 2007 anti-land acquisition agitation. Pradhan was granted bail by the Calcutta High Court on September 28, ten days after his arrest. Rangasamy chose to vacate it and retain the Mangalam constituency, which he also won in the April 2026 Assembly polls.
He contested and won the Dispur Assembly seat. In the high-profile Nandigram constituency, the election was necessitated after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari won two seats in the State elections earlier this year and decided to vacate this one. The Rejinagar seat was vacated by former Minister and Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) leader Humayun Kabir, who had also won Nowda.
In Assam’s Nagaon, where the Lok Sabha byelection will be held, the fight is expected to be between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). The top three contenders are former bureaucrat Devasish Sharma of the BJP, former MLA Sibamoni Bora of the Congress, and Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal, an MLA and the chief of the AIUDF. The Nagaon byelection campaign was marked by high-voltage rallies, road shows, sharp political exchanges, allusions to food habits and clashes, mostly between BJP and Congress supporters. He had defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the Bhabanipur constituency and decided to retain that seat. The campaign in Nandigram was full of controversies, with Mamata Trinamool Congress candidate Sanchita Pradhan Dey withdrawing from the contest after meeting Mr. Adhikari, Ms. Mr. The BJP candidate for the seat is Hasirai Rath. The Left Front and the Ritabrata Banerjee-led Democratic Trinamool Congress are also in the fray. On the last day of the campaign, TVK president and Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay took out a roadshow in Dharapuram. The DMK also undertook an extensive campaign in both Assembly segments, with former Ministers camping and overseeing the poll work. The seat fell vacant after Chief Minister and AINRC founder N. Thattanchavady is also bracing for a multi-cornered fight, with the Congress, DMK, AINRC, and the CPI entering the fray.
The Thattanchavady Assembly constituency in the Union Territory of Puducherry will also go to the polls on Tuesday.
