Amid raging Opposition-led anti-Election Commission protests, the ruling BJP-NDA at the Centre got a shot in the arm on Friday as their candidates took early and firm leads in four of the six bypolls being held for Assembly and Lok Sabha in West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.In Bengal, where the BJP scripted history by forming the first government recently, the party nominees took leads in Nandigram and Rejinagar seats with counting still under way.In Muslim-majority Rejinagar of Murshidabad, the BJP surprisingly inched ahead with candidate Shankharavh Sarkar leading by 34,501 votes over Golam Nabi Azad of the Aam Janata Unnayan Party (AJUP) after five rounds. Sarkar got 48,101 votes, while Azad, the son of AJUP chief and former TMC leader Humayun Kabir, secured 13,600 votes. Mamata Banerjee-led All India Trinamool Congress candidate Rabiul Alam Chowdhury trailed at number three with 2,516 votes and Congress’ Abdullahil Kafi was at the fourth slot with just 2,407 votes.In Purba Medinipur’s Nandigram, BJP’s Hasirani Rath, mother of West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari’s slain personal aide Chandranath Rath, led by over 49,000 votes after six rounds. She polled 66,415 votes, while Congress’s Milan Pradhan was at a distant second with 16,493 votes.CPI’s Santi Gopal Giri was third with 2,495 votes, Ali Md Shab E Meraj Khan of All India Secular Front fourth and Ehteshmul Haque of Democratic Trinamool Congress polled 345 votes.Fifteen rounds are to be counted in all.Nandigram is key as it fell vacant after Adhikari retained Bhabanipur having won both this seat and Nandigram.Rejinagar fell vacant after AJUP founder Humayun Kabir retained Nowda, the second seat he won.In Puducherry, ruling AINRC retained Thattanchavady Assembly segment, party founder and Chief Minister N Ranagsamy’s bastion, which he vacated after April 9 elections in the Union Territory. The AINRC leads the NDA coalition in Puducherry with party candidate Ashok Anand defeating Congress’ E Vinayagam by over 8,400 votes.In Assam’s Lok Sabha bypoll for Nagaon, BJP’s Devashish Sharma sprinted ahead with a lead of 75,248 votes over AIUDF chief Badruddin Ajmal. Former IAS officer Sharma polled 1,81,017 votes and Ajmal got 1,05,769. Congress’ Sibamoni Bora was third with 29,826 votes.In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK was ahead in Dharapuram and overtook the DMK to become second in Madurantakam.In Madurantakam seat, TVK candidate Maragatham Kumaravel led and AIADMK’s Kanitha Sampath was second with DMK’s I Paranthaman third.Elections were necessitated after sitting MLAs resigned.