Election Commission sets 6 October bypolls for Nandigram, Nagaon and four other seats

The Election Commission of India on 7 September fixed 6 October as polling day for five Assembly seats and one Lok Sabha constituency left empty by resignations this year. Counting is on 9 October. The process must close by 11 October. The model code of conduct is in force in the districts from Monday.

The Assembly list is Nandigram and Rejinagar in West Bengal, Madurantakam and Dharapuram in Tamil Nadu, both reserved for Scheduled Castes, and Thattanchavady in Puducherry. The parliamentary vacancy is Nagaon in Assam.

Gazette notification is due on 9 September. The last date for nominations is 16 September. Scrutiny is on 17 September. Withdrawals close on 19 September.

How the seats emptied

Nandigram is the highest-voltage of the six. Suvendu Adhikari won it in the May 2026 Assembly election, then chose to sit from Bhabanipur, where he defeated former chief minister Mamata Banerjee. He now holds the chief minister's office. Nandigram was already a marked constituency after Adhikari beat Banerjee there in 2021 while he was still in the BJP and she was still in power.

Rejinagar fell vacant when Humayun Kabir resigned. Kabir had won the seat in 2026. After Banerjee lost Bhabanipur he offered to vacate Rejinagar so she could return to the House. The Commission is now running a bypoll instead of that transfer.

In Tamil Nadu, Madurantakam MLA Maragatham Kumaravel and Dharapuram MLA P. Sathyabama resigned after leaving the AIADMK for Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, the party of Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. They were among the AIADMK legislators who backed Vijay in a floor test.

Puducherry Chief Minister N. Rangasamy contested two seats, won both, kept Mangalam and resigned Thattanchavady.

Nagaon had been held by Congress MP Pradyut Bordoloi, elected in 2024. He resigned ahead of the Assam Assembly election, joined the BJP and won Dispur. The Lok Sabha seat has sat empty since March.

Rolls and the seats left out

The Commission said the electoral rolls have already been revised. Final publication dates were 23 February for the two Tamil Nadu seats, 14 February for Thattanchavady, 28 February for Nandigram and Rejinagar, and 10 February for Nagaon.

Two other Lok Sabha vacancies were not scheduled: Shillong in Meghalaya and Basirhat in West Bengal. The Commission gave no date for those.

The six contests are local and they are not small. Nandigram tests whether Adhikari's party can hold a seat he no longer sits in. Rejinagar tests whether Banerjee's absence from the House changes the arithmetic in Murshidabad. The two Tamil Nadu reserved seats measure how far TVK can convert AIADMK defectors into a durable vote. Thattanchavady is a straight test of Rangasamy's choice to keep the other seat. Nagaon asks whether a Congress-to-BJP switch at the top of the ticket travels down to a parliamentary bypoll in central Assam.

Campaigning will run under the code through early October. The first paper that matters is the 9 September notification. The last number that matters is the count on 9 October.