The Election Commission (EC) on Friday said Bihar Assembly polls and the 65 bypolls for Assembly and Lok Sabha seats due in various States will be conducted at the same time due to logistics reasons. The EC also said it would announce the Bihar poll dates “at an appropriate time”. The term of the Bihar Assembly ends on November 29.
According to the EC, one of the major factors in clubbing them together is the relative ease of movement of Central forces, law and orders and related logistics issues.
“Considering that Bihar Assembly elections are also due and required to be completed before November 29, 2020, the Commission has decided to conduct all the 65 bypolls and the Assembly elections of Bihar around the same time.
One of the major factors in clubbing them together is the relative ease of movement of Central Armed Police Forces/ other law and order forces, and related logistics issues. Announcement of the schedule of Bihar General Assembly elections as well as these bypolls will be done by the Commission at the appropriate time,” the EC said.
The EC meeting was held on Friday regarding the holding of bypolls due in various States. The EC has reviewed the reports and inputs from Chief Secretaries/Chief Electoral Officers of many of the concerned States seeking deferment of the bypolls in their States in view of several factors.
Currently, there are 65 clear vacancies due for bypolls in Assembly/Parliamentary constituency, out of which there are 64 vacancies in the State Legislative Assemblies of various States and one) vacancy for Parliamentary Constituency. The bypolls were scheduled to be held earlier this year. But they had to be deferred due to Covid-19 pandemic situation.
The vacant Assembly seats include 27 in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, after former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and the MLAs supporting him quit the party and their posts as legislators in March this year. Besides Madhya Pradesh, bypolls in eight seats in the Gujarat Assembly are pending as well. These are the Abdasa, Limdi, Karjan, Dang, Kaprada, Morbi, Dadhada, and Dhari constituencies. In July, the EC had deferred polls in one Lok Sabha seat, and seven Assembly seats due to “extraordinary circumstances peculiar to these constituencies”.
They were the Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, along with two Assembly seats each in Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh, and one each in Assam, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala. Most of these seats had fallen vacant due to the death of sitting members.