EC announces bypoll to parliamentary, Assembly seats on 30 October; counting of votes on 2 November

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced by-elections to three parliamentary constituencies of Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh and 30 Assembly constituencies of various states to be held on 30 October.

The Commission has decided to hold these bye-elections to fill vacant seats and has fixed the dates of poll events as per provisions under Section 30 and date of withdrawal under Section 30(c) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.

As per the schedule, the last date for nominations in the assembly constituencies of Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Telangana and Parliamentary Constituency of UT of Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Din, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh is 10 October, date of scrutiny of nomination is 11 October and withdrawal of candidature 13 October, date of poll will be 30 October and the votes will be counted on 2 November.

While the date of election and counting remains the same for the byelections in Assam, Bihar and West Bengal, their dates of nomination, scrutiny of nomination and withdrawal of candidature are 8,11 and 16 October respectively.

Given the pandemic, as per the EC guidelines, meetings must have a 30 percent of allowed capacity or 200 persons, whichever is less and a register must be maintained to count the number of people attending the meeting.

Outdoor meetings, in the case of star campaigners, meetings must have 50 percent of capacity or 1,000 and 50 percent of the capacity or 500 in all other cases. The entire area will be cordoned off and will be guarded by the police. The count of people entering the ground will be monitored. Expenditure for the cordoning/barricading will be borne by the candidate/party. Only those grounds which are cordoned/ barricaded completely will be used for rallies.

The number of star campaigners will be restricted to 20. No roadshow and motorbike or cycle rallies will be to be allowed.

September 28, 2021 at 11:01AM