The Election Commission of India (ECI) is likely to conduct bye-elections to the two vacant Assembly seats in the State by around November 29. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the commission on Friday.
The constituencies concerned are Baleswar Sadar and Tirtol, which have fallen vacant after the demise of MLAs Madan Mohan Dutta and Bishnu Charan Das, respectively.
The meeting of the ECI was held regarding holding of bye-elections due in various States. Presently, there are 65 clear vacancies due for bye-elections in Assembly/Parliamentary constituencies, out of which there are 64 vacancies in the State Legislative Assemblies and one vacancy for a Parliamentary constituency.
The commission reviewed the reports and inputs from Chief Secretaries/Chief Electoral Officers of many of the concerned States seeking deferment of the bye-elections in their States in view of several factors including the extraordinary heavy rains in some places and other constraints like Covid-19 pandemic, etc.
Considering that General Assembly Election of Bihar is also due and required to be completed before November 29, the ECI has decided to conduct all the 65 bye-elections and the General Assembly Elections of Bihar around the same time. One of the major factors in clubbing them together is the relative ease of movement of CAPF/other law and order forces and related logistics issues.