Opposition candidates raise allegations of intimidation during bypoll campaigning in West Bengal

You don’t have any Active Subscription.

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

“The way they are arresting our workers and leaders in random fake cases, this is how they are stopping us from campaigning. Now, I will campaign through my social media [accounts] only,” Humayun Kabir said. File | Photo Credit: PTI

West Bengal is witnessing a turbulent bypoll campaign in both Nandigram and Rejinagar constituencies. Milan Pradhan, the Congress candidate from Nandigram, applied for bail before the Calcutta High Court on Monday (September 21, 2026). Aam Janata Unnayan Party leader Humayun Kabir said that police are pressurising him not to campaign for his son Golam Nabi Azad at Rejinagar.

Mr. Pradhan was arrested on September 18 hours after former Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee extended her support to the candidate. Many across political party lines have called this a “targeted attack”.

However, Congress party members and local leaders in Nandigram started campaigning on Monday on the streets of the constituency without the candidate‘s physical presence on the ground as he remains in judicial custody till October 3 for cases dating back to 2007.

As Mr. Pradhan applied for bail on Monday, a new case was slapped on him on Sunday (September 20). He was arrested by the police in four cases that date back to 2007. Without bail, Mr. Pradhan will not have any time to canvass for himself.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal unit of Congress released a video where Arpita Pradhan, Mr. Pradhan’s wife, is claiming her husband was wrongfully arrested in fake cases. “He has always been here at public events, why was he not arrested before? Why arrest him now when he became the Congress candidate?” Ms. Pradhan said in the video. She urged people of Nandigram to see the truth and vote in his favour in the bypolls.

Previously, in a statement published by the State police, they had said that Mr. Pradhan had been absconding and avoiding the rule of law for over 19 years and his arrest was “lawful”.

Nandigram constituency is one of the most prestigious seats as it is Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s home turf. He won from this seat in 2026 by 9,665 votes. However, he relinquished it because he had defeated Mamata Banerjee from Bhabanipur and retained his MLA seat there. Mr. Adhikari had also defeated Ms. Banerjee from Nandigram in 2021 Assembly polls by a margin of 1,956 votes.

AJUP founder, Mr. Kabir fielded his own son Mr. Azad from Rejinagar, a seat he relinquished after retaining Nowda in which emerged on top as well.

“The way they are arresting our workers and leaders in random fake cases, this is how they are stopping us from campaigning. Now, I will campaign through my social media [accounts] only,” Mr. Kabir said on Monday. He claimed that he has been caged from all sides, and anyone associated with him is being wrongfully picked up by the police as even families he is visiting for campaigning have been threatened.

Mr. Kabir also said that AJUP workers have stopped campaigning due to these harassments, and they will directly “see” things on the election day and sacrifice his life if need be.

On Monday (September 21), the Nowda MLA was called for questioning at Behrampore Police Station in relation to a viral audio clip case that was made public during the 2026 Assembly elections and left questions about AJUP’s funding and political backing.

On September 19, West Bengal police had arrested Saiful Islam, an Independent candidate from Rejinagar, who has close associations with the AJUP leadership. This came a day after Mr. Pradhan was arrested.

Bypolls to Nandigram and Rejinagar seats are scheduled to be held on October 6.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.