Chennai, Sept: The Election Commission of India today announced that by-elections for Vikravandi and Nanguneri Assembly constituencies in Tamilnadu will be held 21 October. Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora said the counting will take place on 24 October.
“Nominations will begin 23 September and last date to file papers is 30 September. Scrutiny will take place on 1 October and 3 October is the last day to withdraw the nominations,” he said in New Delhi, while announcing by-polls for 64 Assembly constituencies across the country and general elections for Maharashtra and Haryana Assemblies.
The Vikravandi Assembly seat fell vacant after DMK MLA K Rathamani passed away in June. Nanguneri is vacant after Congress MLA H Vasantha Kumar resigned in May after being elected as Member of Parliament.
Sunil Arora also announced elections for the 15 Assembly seats in Karnataka which lie vacant after the MLAs were disqualified.
He said Assembly polls in Maharashtra and Haryana will be conducted in a single phase 21 October and the results will be out 24 October. The last date for filing nominations is 4 October and the deadline for withdrawing them is 7 October. These are the first State polls after the national election this year. The term of the Haryana Assembly ends 2 November, and Maharashtra’s 9 November. There are 1.82 crore voters in the northern State; Maharashtra has 8.9 crore voters.
Two special expenditure observers, both retired Indian Revenue Service officers, will be sent to Maharashtra to check election spending by candidates, Arora told reporters today.
“I request the cooperation of all stakeholders in this democratic exercise,” the Chief Election Commissioner said.
In Haryana’s 90-seat Assembly in the 2014 State election, the BJP won 47 and the Congress 15; the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) took 19. The rest were won by other regional parties and independents. In Maharashtra, BJP won 122 seats in Maharashtra in 2014, Shiv Sena took home 63 seats, Congress won 42 and Sharad Pawar’s NCP 41 seats.