Bypolls explained: Six seats, four states and a counting day on October 9

Six seats voted on October 6: five assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat.

The states and territory were West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Assam.

A bypoll fills a seat that has fallen vacant between general elections.

Turnout was above 78% in all five assembly seats by 5 pm.

Counting is on October 9.

Counting of votes is scheduled for October 9, 2026, according to ETV Bharat.

By 1 pm, turnout was 60.32% in Nandigram, 56.43% in Rejinagar, 56.09% in Dharapuram, 56.31% in Thattanchavadi and 55.19% in Madurantakam, according to Election Commission data.

By 5 pm, Madurantakam led with 83.86%, followed by Nandigram at 79.39%, Thattanchavadi at 78.83%, Dharapuram at 78.53% and Rejinagar at 78.42%.

At the close of polling, Madurantakam recorded 85.99%, Thattanchavadi 80.81% and Dharapuram 80.31%, according to ETV Bharat.

Nagaon recorded around 76% turnout by 5 pm, with the final figure expected to rise as voters already in queues were allowed to vote.

Nagaon has 19.05 lakh registered electors and 15 candidates in the fray.

The main contest in Nagaon is between BJP’s Debashish Sharma, Congress’s Sibamoni Bora and AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal.

The by-election was needed after Pradyut Bordoloi resigned the seat and went on to win the Dispur assembly seat on a BJP ticket.

In Nandigram, BJP’s Hasirani Rath faced Congress’s Milan Pradhan, and in Rejinagar the AJUP’s Humayun Kabir was defending the seat.

In Tamil Nadu, the contest was triangular between TVK, the DMK and the AIADMK.

An EVM malfunction briefly halted voting in Assam’s Morigaon district, according to ETV Bharat.

The Election Commission allowed those already in the queue at closing time to cast their votes.

Voting in Bengal’s Nandigram and Rejinagar ended at 6 pm.

A bypoll is held to fill a seat that has fallen vacant between general elections, and the winner serves the rest of the term.

Voting machine in India (representative image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0