Counting of votes for six bypolls across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Assam began at 8 AM on Friday, and the first declared result went to Puducherry, where the ruling AINRC's Ashok Anand won the Thattanchavady assembly seat by a margin of more than 8,400 votes over Congress's E. Vinayagam. Early trends elsewhere showed the BJP leading in three constituencies, with Tamil Nadu's two seats producing a close multi-corner fight.
What is declared so far
Anand polled 13,358 votes in Thattanchavady, securing the seat comfortably ahead of Vinayagam and DMK's K. Sethu Selvam, according to official trends.
Where the BJP is ahead
In West Bengal, the BJP's Hasirani Rath was comfortably ahead in the politically significant Nandigram seat — vacated by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari — against Congress's Milan Pradhan, with trends showing her lead crossing 19,000 votes. In the minority-dominated Rejinagar seat, BJP's Sakharav Sarkar opened a wide lead of over 31,000 votes in early rounds. In Assam's Nagaon Lok Sabha bypoll, the BJP's Devasish Sharma led AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal by tens of thousands of votes.
Tamil Nadu contests
The Tamil Nadu seats offered the tightest battles. In Madurantakam, TVK's Maragatham Kumaravel led, while in Dharapuram, AIADMK's K. Banumathi and TVK's P. Sathyabama traded the lead within a few hundred votes. DMK leader Elangovan urged patience, calling the trends early and alleging voter-list tampering — a claim that the Election Commission's final tallies will settle.
Sources: By-election results 2026 LIVE updates (NDTV) | Bypolls 2026 results (Times Now)