West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Monday said the byelections to the Nandigram and Rejinagar Assembly seats had proved that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) does not draw support from only one community.

Mr. Adhikari was pointing to Muslim voters backing the party’s candidates in the bypolls held earlier this month. The BJP won Nandigram by a margin of over 1.22 lakh votes and the minority-dominated Rejinagar by over 75,000 votes. The Chief Minister had earlier said that 80% of Muslims in Nandigram and 60% of the minority population in Rejinagar had voted for the BJP in the bypolls held on October 6, 2026.

“A perception was created that BJP gets support of only one community and this was true particularly in the context of 2021 assembly polls,” Mr. Adhikari said.

He was speaking at the culmination of a party victory procession in Kolkata, where the winning candidates from both Nandigram and Rejinagar were present. He accused the Trinamool Congress Government of dividing people on the basis of language and community, and said the previous Government had tried to create a divide between Bengalis and non-Bengalis.

State BJP president Samik Bhattacharya also took part in the procession. He said the politics of division was over and that Muslims wanted education and health for their children.

Addressing the gathering, Mr. Adhikari urged voters in Kolkata and Howrah to back the BJP in the civic polls and help it provide a “triple-engine government.”

“At the Prime Minister’s call, you gave us a double-engine government. At the Chief Minister’s call, we now have to give a triple-engine government. Will you give us Howrah and Kolkata? Standing on the streets of Kolkata, I am appealing to you with both hands outstretched — will you give us Howrah and Kolkata?” he said.

Elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the Howrah Municipal Corporation are scheduled for November this year.

Earlier in the day, Mr. Adhikari alleged that about 5,000 ponds were illegally filled for real estate development during the 15 years of the Trinamool Congress Government.