Campaign ends due to high stakes in three states, one UT

In this image from a video released on Oct. 4, 2026, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay drives a bullock cart alongside party leaders KG Arunraj and C Vijayabaskar during a demonstration campaign outside the Dharapuram Assembly constituency in Dharapuram in Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu. | Photo credit: PTI

Campaigning for the by-elections to five Assembly constituencies in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry as well as one Lok Sabha constituency in Assam ended on Sunday (October 4, 2026) at 5 pm. Voting will take place on Tuesday (October 6, 2026), with vote counting scheduled for Friday (October 9, 2026).

In Assam’s Nagaon, where the Lok Sabha by-election will be held, a fight is expected between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress and the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). The Muslim-majority parliamentary constituency has about 19.07 million voters who can choose from 15 candidates, including nine independents.

The top three candidates are former bureaucrat Devasish Sharma of BJP, former MLA Sibamoni Bora of Congress and Mohammed Badruddin Ajmal, MLA and AUIDF chief. The poll became necessary after Pradyut Bordoloi, who had won the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat for the second time in 2024, quit the Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the April 2026 assembly elections. He contested and won the Dispur assembly seat.

The election campaign in Nagaon was marked by high-voltage rallies, road shows, sharp political exchanges, innuendos over eating habits and clashes, mostly between BJP and Congress supporters.

Stormy rush

In West Bengal, by-polls will be held in Nandigram and Rejinagar assembly constituencies.

In the hotly contested 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 that one. He defeated former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in Bhabanipur constituency and decided to retain the seat. The Rejinagar seat was vacated by former minister and Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) leader Humayun Kabir, who also won Nowda.

The campaign in Nandigram was full of controversy, Mamata Trinamool Congress candidate Sanchita Pradhan Dey withdrew from the contest after meeting Mr. Adhikari, Ms. Banerjee subsequently decided to support Congress candidate Milan Pradhan and he was subsequently arrested in connection with the 2007 anti-land acquisition agitation. Mr. Pradhan was granted bail by the Calcutta High Court on 28 September, ten days after his arrest. The BJP candidate for the seat is Hasirai Rath. The Left Front and the Ritabrat Banerjee-led Trinamool Democratic Congress are also in the fray.

BJP, Congress, AJUP and also two factions of Trinamool Congress are contesting in Rejinagar.

A multi-cornered fight

In Tamil Nadu, the assembly constituencies are Madurantakam (SC) in Chengalpattu district and Dharapuram (SC) in Tiruppur.

The two assembly segments were declared vacant following the resignation of Maragatham Kumaravel and P. Sathyabama on 25 May 2026. They were elected on All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) tickets but resigned within three weeks to join the ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK). The by-election is a five-cornered contest pitting the TVK-led Social Justice Victory Secular Alliance, the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam-led Secular Progressive Alliance and the AIADMK-led National Democratic Alliance. The Left Front is also contesting separately while the Naam Tamilar Katchi is going alone.

On the last day of the campaign, TVK President and Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay organized a roadshow in Dharapuram. The DMK also campaigned extensively in both the assembly segments where former ministers camped and supervised the polling process.

Thattanchavady Assembly constituency in the Union Territory of Puducherry will also go to polls on Tuesday. The seat fell vacant after Chief Minister and AINRC founder N. Rangasamy decided to vacate it and retain Mangalam constituency, which he also won in the April 2026 assembly elections. Thattanchavady is also gearing up for a multi-cornered fight in which Congress, DMK, AINRC and CPI have entered.

Published – 04 Oct 2026 21:55 IST