The Election Commission of India on Sunday announced by-elections on five assembly seats in four states.
According to the press release issued by the Commission, elections will be held in Kadi and Visavadar assembly of Gujarat, Nilambur assembly of Kerala, Ludhiana West of Punjab and Kaliganj assembly of West Bengal.
The Election Commission said that the notification for the election will be issued on May 26 and with this the election process will start. The last date for nomination in the election has been fixed as June 2.
After this, the nomination papers will be scrutinized on June 3 and nominations can be withdrawn till June 5. The Commission has said that voting will be held on June 19 and the counting of votes will be done on June 23.
In Gujarat, the Visavdar seat fell vacant due to the resignation of the then Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Bhupatbhai Bhayani (who later joined the BJP). The Kadi seat, which is reserved for Schedule Caste (SC) candidates, is vacant due to the passing away of the then BJP MLA Karsanbhai Punjabhai Solanki.
The bypoll to the Nilambur Assembly seat in Kerala was necessitated by the resignation of Independent MLA P.V. Anvar
The Ludhiana West Assembly constituency in Punjab fell vacant following the demise of sitting Congress MLA Gurpreet Bassi Gogi.
In West Bengal, the election will be held in Kalighat following the Assembly seat falling vacant after the demise of sitting MLA, veteran Trinamool Congress MLA Nasiruddin Ahmed, who died of cardiac arrest in February.
With the announcement of the election schedule, the Model Code of Conduct has come into force with immediate effect in the districts in which the whole or any part of the Assembly constituency going for election is included, said the ECI.
Prakash Kumar Pandey