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

The Election Commission on 7 September set 6 October as polling day for five Assembly seats and the Nagaon Lok Sabha constituency. Counting is on 9 October. The process is to finish by 11 October. The gazette notification is due on 9 September, nominations close on 16 September, scrutiny is on 17 September and withdrawal ends on 19 September. The model code is already in force in the districts concerned.

The Assembly seats are 210-Nandigram and 70-Rejinagar in West Bengal, 35-Madurantakam (SC) and 101-Dharapuram (SC) in Tamil Nadu, and 09-Thattanchavady in Puducherry. The parliamentary vacancy is 09-Nagaon in Assam. That is the full list in the Commission's press note.

Nandigram is vacant because Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari kept Bhabanipur, where he defeated Mamata Banerjee by 15,105 votes in the 2026 Assembly election. Adhikari had also won Nandigram. He beat Banerjee there in 2021 as well. The bypoll is therefore a test of whether the new government can hold the seat that first made Adhikari a state-wide figure, without him on the ballot.

Rejinagar fell vacant after Humayun Kabir, who leads the Aam Janata Unnayan Party, resigned. Kabir won both Rejinagar and Naoda in 2026 after leaving the Trinamool Congress. He kept Naoda. His party is small. The contest will show whether his personal vote travels with the AJUP label or returns to Trinamool or the Bharatiya Janata Party.

In Tamil Nadu the two reserved seats were won by AIADMK candidates Maragatham Kumaravel in Madurantakam and P. Sathyabama in Dharapuram. Both were among rebel AIADMK legislators who backed Chief Minister Vijay's Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam government in a floor test. The bypolls will show whether those voters stay with the new arrangement or go back to the AIADMK or the DMK. Vijay is due to chair a political meeting on 9 September as Congress and TVK argue over a 2029 prime ministerial candidate. The reserved-seat bypolls are a nearer, smaller measure of the same alliance stress.

Thattanchavady in Puducherry is vacant because the winning candidate held two seats and retained Mangalam. In Assam, Pradyut Bordoloi vacated Nagaon after winning it for Congress in 2024, later joining the Bharatiya Janata Party and winning Dispur in the state election. Nagaon is a Lok Sabha seat. A party switch plus a bypoll is a national whip question as well as a local one.

The calendar is tight. Parties have a week after the gazette to file papers. The code restricts transfers, new grants and official campaigning by governments in the affected districts. Nandigram and Nagaon will draw the most cameras. The quieter seats still change the arithmetic in two state assemblies and one Lok Sabha party total.

Results on 9 October will not rewrite national numbers. They will show whether the 2026 Assembly verdicts in Bengal and Tamil Nadu were a settled preference or a first draft that voters are willing to revise within months. The Commission has given them four weeks and a fixed counting day to say so.