26 Assembly bypolls to be held along with Lok Sabha elections

By-elections to 26 Assembly seats across 13 States, including six constituencies in Himachal Pradesh where Congress MLAs were disqualified for rebellion, will be held along with the Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.

New Delhi: The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced by-polls to 26 Assembly seats, including six constituencies in Himachal Pradesh where rebel Congress MLAs voted against the party’s nominee Abhishek Manu Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha polls, and were subsequently disqualified.

Announcing the general elections, Central Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said that elections will simultaneously be held in these seats spread across 12 states.

In Himachal Pradesh, elections will be held in the Dharamshala, Sujanpur, Lahaul and Spiti, Kutlehar, Barsar and Gagret seats, where the Congress MLAs Sudhir Sharma, Rajinder Rana, Ravi Thakur, Davinder Kumar Bhutto, Indira Datt Lakhanpal and Chaitanaya Sharma, respectively, were disqualified.

They were disqualified by the Speaker for cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha elections for the BJP candidate Harsh Majahan, a former Congress leader. The by-polls will be held on June 1, the day of the final and seventh phase of the polls.

The elections are significant because this could also spell disaster for the Congress, which might find it hard to cobble up numbers. Their disqualifications led to the strength of the House to fall from 68 to 62, and Congress’s numbers to fall from 40 to 34.

Elections will also be held in five seats in Gujarat, where six seats in the 176-member assembly lie vacant after Congress MLAs CJ Chavda from the Vijapur seat, Chirag Patel from Khambhat, Arvind Ladani from Manavadar, Arjun Modhwadia from Porbandar and independent legislator Dharmendrasinh Vaghela from Vaghodia join the BJP.

The by-elections will be held on May 7.

In Haryana, polls will be held in the Karnala seat which fell vacant after the resignation of chief minister ML Khattar on May 25. Elections will also be held in the Agiaon seat in Bihar,

The by-poll for the Agiaon assembly seat in Bihar will be held on June 1, which fell vacant after the disqualification of CPI (M-L) legislator Manoj Manji was found guilty of murder.

On the same day, elections will also be held in Uttar Pradesh’s Duddhi and West Bengal’s Baranagar. BJP MLA from Duddhi, Ram Dular, was disqualified after his conviction in a rape case and Trinamool Congress MLA from Baranagar Tapas Roy joined the BJP.

The Gainsari assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh, which fell vacant after the death of SP MLA Shiv Pratap Yadav, will see its by-poll on May 25.

The by-poll for the Gandey seat in Jharkhand and Lucknow East in Uttar Pradesh which fell vacant due to resignations of JMM MLA Sarfaraz Ahmed and BJP MLA Ashutosh Tandon, respectively, will be held on May 20.

By-elections will also be held for UP’s Dadraul and Telangana’s Secunderabad Cantt after both seats fell vacant due to the deaths of BJP MLA Manavendra Singh and BRS MLA Lasya Nanditha Sayanna, respectively – on May 13.

On May 7, bypolls will be held in West Bengal’s Bhagwangola after the seat fell vacant due to the death of Trinamool MLA Idris Ali.

On April 26, bypolls will be held in Rajasthan’s Bagidora seat and Maharashtra’s Akola West. Bagidora’s Congress MLA Mahendra Jeet Singh Malviya joined the BJP and the Akola West seat fell vacant due to the death of BJP MLA Govardhan Mangilal Sharma.

The Ramnagar seat in Tripura, which fell vacant due to the death of BJP MLA Surajit Datta, will go to polls on April 19.