The Election Commission of India has announced by-elections to Narayankhed Assembly constituency in Medak district along with 12 Assembly constituencies in eight States, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and Maharashtra, to be held on February 13. Election Notification will be released on January 20.
Polling in Narayankhed Assembly constituency will be held on February 13 and counting of votes will be taken up on February 16. Nomination papers would be received till January 27. It may be mentioned here that the by-election to the Narayankhed Assembly constituency was necessitated due to the demise of Congress MLA.
Similarly, by-elections will be held in Muzzafarnagar, Deoband and Bikapur in Uttar Pradesh, Devadurga, Bidar and Hebbal in Karnataka, Khadoor Sahib in Punjab, Palghar in Maharashtra, Harlakhee in Bihar, Amarpur in Tripura, Maihar in Madhya Pradesh on February 13.
January 27 will be the last date of filing of nominations. The candidates can withdraw from the electoral battle till January 30 and the polls will be held on February 13, a Saturday. All the three seats in UP were held by the ruling Samajwadi Party. The Devadurga seat in Karnataka was held by the ruling Congress, while Bidar and Hebbal were held by the BJP.
The Khadoor Sahib seat in Punjab was held by the Congress, while Harlakhee in Bihar was held by the RLSP. In Tripura’s Amarpur, the bypoll was necessitated after the CPI(M) expelled its sitting MLA M. Acharjee, who later resigned from the Assembly in December 2015. The bypoll to Palghar in Maharashtra was due since June 2015 but the EC could not move ahead as an election petition was pending.
The Election Commission has decided to use EVMs in the bye-elections in all the polling stations of these States. Adequate numbers of EVMs have been made available and all steps have been taken to ensure that the polls are conducted smoothly with the help of these machines. The Commission has decided that the voter’s identification shall be mandatory in the aforementioned bye- elections at the time of poll. Elector’s Photo Identity Card (EPIC) shall be the main document of identification of a voter. However, in order to ensure that no voter is deprived of his/her franchise, if his/her name figures in the Electoral Rolls, separate instructions will be issued to allow additional documents for identification of voters at the time of poll in the said bye-elections. (NSS)