The Election Commission of India on Saturday, announced the date for by polls in Odisha, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhatisgarh According to the statement released by ECI, polling will take place on December 5, and the counting of votes will be done on December 8. The Gazette Notification will be issued on November 10 and the candidates can file their nominations till November 17. The date of scrutiny of nominations is November 18 and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is November 21, the statement informed.
Polling will take place on vacant seats in Odhisha's Padampur, Rajasthan's Sardarshahar, Bihar's Kurhani, Chhattisgarh's Bhanupratappur (ST) and UP's Rampur. Along with the by-elections to five assembly constituencies, polling wiill also take place on the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat that fell vacant following the death of Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav who passed away last month due to prolonged illness.
Rampur assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh fell vacant following the disqualification of SP leader Mohammad Azam Khan who was MLA from Rampur. He was disqualified by the speaker after he was convicted and sentenced to three-year imprisonment in a case of hate speech registered against him in April 2019.
The dates of the counting for the single parliamentary and five assembly seats coincides with the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh ballot count.
The statement released by the poll body on Saturday said that the Commission has decided to use EVMs and VVPATs in the by-elections in all the polling stations. "Adequate number of EVMs and VVPATs have been made avaliable and all steps have been taken to ensure that the polls are conducted smoothly with the help of these machines," read the statement.
Earlier on Friday Chief Electoral Officer Sushil Kumar Lohani informed that the special campaign for electoral roll revision by the ECI will start in Odisha from November 9. Lohani informed about the same during a review meeting with district collectors and sub-collectors regarding preparedness for the conduct of the special campaign.
Explaining to the officers, Lohani informed them that the Commission has made provision for the collection of advance applications from prospective Electors (17+ years) now.
Earlier there was one qualifying date on January 1 of every year for which youths above 18 years had to wait for one year for enrolling themselves in the electoral roll. But from this year, the provision has been made for four qualifying dates starting with each quarter of the year i.e. January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1.
(With agencies' Inputs)