New Delhi: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced the schedule for by-polls to one Lok Sabha seat and 56 Assembly constituencies.
While by-polls to 54 Assembly constituencies will be taken place on November 3, those for the Lok Sabha seat of Valmiki Nagar in Bihar and two Assembly constituencies of Manipur will be conducted on November 7.
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The Valmiki Nagar seat fell vacant in February after the death of incumbent Lok Sabha MP Baidyanath Prasad Mahato of the JD(U).
The commission has also decided not to hold by-elections to seven constituencies in four states.
Elections on the seats -- two each in Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and one in Bengal -- will be held early next year.
The Commission said the Chief Secretaries of the states have expressed difficulty in conducting elections for these seats.
The decision was taken in a meeting of ECI after receiving inputs from the chief secretaries and electoral officers of the respective states.
"After taking into consideration various factors like weather conditions, movement of forces, pandemic etc, the commission has decided to hold by-elections," a note from the Election Commission said.
Assembly by-polls for Madhya Pradesh have the highest number of seats-28, among the 54 Assembly constituencies for which polling will be held on November 3.
The by-polls in Madhya Pradesh were necessitated after collapsing of Government as at least two dozen Congress MLAs followed Jyotiraditya Scindia in joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in March.
Gujarat (eight), Uttar Pradesh (seven); Jharkhand, Karnataka, Nagaland, Odisha (two each) and one each from Telangana, Chhattisgarh and Haryana will undergo polls along with Madhya Pradesh.
by-polls were required for seven other Assembly constituencies but these have been deferred as the term of the House in states in which these constituencies fall is due to lapse in either May or June next year.
These Assembly constituencies include Rangapara and Sibsagar (Assam), Kuttanad and Chavara (Kerala), Tiruvottiyur and Gudiyattam (Tamil Nadu) and Falakata (West Bengal).
Bye poll schedule for 54 Assembly constituencies as follows:
- Date of notification: October 9
- Last date of nominations: October 16
- Scrutiny of nominations: October 17
- Last date of candidature withdrawal: October 19
- Polling day: November 3
- Date of counting: November 10
Bypoll schedule for Lok Sabha seat and two Assembly constituencies:
- Date of notification: October 13
- Last date of nominations: October 20
- Scrutiny of nominations: October 21
- Last date of candidature withdrawal: October 23
- Polling day: November 7
- Date of counting: November 10
