NEW DELHI: The Electoral Commission on friday he decided that he club polls in the Valmiki Nagar parliamentary constituency in Bihar and 64 assembly seats in 14 states and the Bihar assembly elections are expected to be held in October-November.
The commission said a key reason for pounding Bihar’s ballot box with 65 by-elections, necessary for various reasons such as death, resignation or disqualification of the MLA from office, was the “relative ease” of movement of the central armed police forces and other law enforcement agencies. and related logistics issues. He also pointed out the demands of states where by-elections must postpone them in view of heavy rains and limitations such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
The sources said that given the limited number of central forces that the Interior Ministry can salvage in view of their continued involvement in theaters like Jammu and Kashmir, it was thought appropriate to schedule the Bihar elections and the by-elections together. Limited forces may also require multi-stage probing in Bihar.
Apart from Valmiki Nagar Lok Sabha seat, which became vacant after Baidyanath Prasad Mahto’s death in February, there are 27 vacant assembly seats in Madhya Pradesh, eight in Gujarat and UP, five in Manipur, two in Assam, Jharkhand, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Nagaland and Odisha, and one in Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka and West Bengal.
On Friday, the commission said it had reviewed reports and input from top election clerks / directors from many of the states involved seeking postponement of the by-elections in light of various factors. In view of the requirement to complete the state surveys in Bihar by November 29, the EC said it has decided to conduct the 65 secondary surveys with the Bihar surveys.
The announcement of the schedule for these elections / by-elections will be made at an appropriate time, the EC said.
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