The Election Commission announced Tuesday that 54 assembly constituencies and one parliamentary constituency in 10 states would go to the polls on November 3 and 7, respectively.
Two assembly constituencies in Manipur will also go to the polls along with the Valmiki Nagar parliamentary constituency in Bihar on November 3.
The results of the elections will be announced no later than November 12, and the count will take place on November 10. The Commission’s calendar follows the announcement of the Bihar assembly elections in three phases, which also go to the polls from October 28 to November 7.
Also read: Election Commission decides not to announce by-elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu after receiving input from the chief secretaries and election officials
Elections to seven assembly constituencies in Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, however, have been postponed as the House mandate in the aforementioned states will expire in May or June next year. People familiar with the matter had previously told the Hindustan Times that it was pointless to hold elections in Kerala, where there are only two vacancies, as the assembly in the state must be re-elected before June 2021.
“In the midst of this pandemic and considering the devastation caused by the floods, it would be unnecessarily expensive to hold the by-elections,” said a person familiar with the matter, adding that a representation had been sent to postpone the elections. to the Commission in August.
The Commission will now conduct surveys for Chhattisgarh (1), Gujarat (8), Haryana (1), Jharkhand (2), Karnataka (2), Manipur (2), Nagaland (2), Odisha (2), Madhya Pradesh (28 ) Assembly districts of Telangana (1) and Uttar Pradesh (7).
Also read: Bihar elections get a new political constituency: more than 16 lakh of migrant workers
All 28 constituencies in Madhya Pradesh were vacated in March after Jyotiraditya Scindia left Congress to join the BJP along with his loyalists. The change led to the fall of the congressional government in the state, with Shivraj Chouhan of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) returning as prime minister. Partial polls are crucial to the survival of the BJP government in the state, as it enjoys a minimal majority in the 230-member state assembly. The BJP needs to win nine of the 28 seats. It currently has 107 places. Congress, which lost power in March when its 21 lawmakers resigned and paved the way for the BJP’s return to power, has 88 members in the House with an effective force of 202.
The EC will also hold elections for the Valmiki Nagar parliamentary constituency, which was vacated after the death of JD (U) ‘S Lok Sabha Minister Baidyanath Prasad Mahato in February.
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