The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday announced dates for bypolls to one Lok Sabha seat and 56 Assembly constituencies spread across 12 States. Bypolls to 54 Assembly constituencies will take place on November 3 while bypolls to the Lok Sabha seat and two Assembly constituencies will be conducted on November 7. The votes will be counted on November 10 alongside the counting of votes for the general assembly elections in Bihar.
Before announcing the schedule, the poll panel had issued a separate statement on Tuesday to announce that it has decided not to hold assembly bypolls in seven seats across Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Assam and West Bengal “at this stage” after specific request from the states in conduct of polls.
By-polls will be held for Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh has the highest number of seats--27--among the 54 Assembly constituencies for which polling will be held on November 3. Next is Gujarat (eight), Uttar Pradesh (seven); Jharkhand, Karnataka, Nagaland, Odisha (two each) and one each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Haryana. The term of the legislative assemblies of the four states would end on different dates between May and June next year.
The bypolls in Madhya Pradesh were necessitated after 25 Congress MLAs followed their leader Jyotiraditya Scindia in joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March. This led to the collapse of the state’s Congress government and paved way for the BJP to return to power. The bypolls were necessitated on three of the seats - Joura, Agar and Biora - due to death of the MLAs - two from the Congress and one from BJP, and on the remaining seats due to resignation of the then Congress MLAs.
The Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat fell vacant in February after the death of incumbent Lok Sabha MP Baidyanath Prasad Mahato of the JD(U). The bypolls were necessitated following resignations tendered by Congress MLAs, five in March and three in June. The reason is that the number of vacant seats in some states has changed due to various reasons, including court cases.
According to EC, the date of issue of notification for by-polls to 54 Assembly seats in various states, except Manipur, is October 10, while the last date of filing nominations is October 16, and date for withdrawal is October 19. In the two Assembly seats of Manipur, and one Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, the date for filing nominations October 20, and for withdrawal of nominations is October 23.
