In its latest notification, the Election Commission of India (ECI) said on Tuesday that the bypolls to seven Assembly seats will be conducted on September 5. The counting of votes will take place on September 8. According to the EC statement, the bypolls are slated to be held for two seats in Tripura, and one seat each in Jharkhand, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Kerala.
Bypolls to be held on these seven Assembly seats:
- Tripura (Boxanagar and Dhanpur seats): The bypolls at these two seats were necessitated owing to the death of sitting MLA Samsul Haque and the resignation of Pratima Bhoumik.
- Jharkhand (Dumri seat): The by-election at this seat was necessitated following the death of sitting MLA Jagarnath Mahto.
- West Bengal (Dhupguri seat): It was vacated following the demise of sitting MLA Bishnu Pada Ray.
- Uttar Pradesh (Ghosi seat): The bypolls will be conducted here as the seat fell vacant after Samajwadi Party's MLA Dara Singh Chauhan resigned to join the BJP.
- Uttarakhand (Bageshwar seat): The seat fell vacant following the demise of sitting MLA Chandan Ram Das
- Kerala (Puthuppally seat): The bypoll at this seat was necessitated following the demise of sitting MLA and former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy. He represented the seat for over 50 years. He breathed his last on July 18, 2023.
What is bypoll?
It should be mentioned here that bypolls are elections held to fill vacancies in legislative bodies. It is an important component of the larger political cycle, supplementing normal elections by filling unforeseen vacancies. The fundamental goal of byelections is to ensure the timely filing of vacant seats, allowing the affected constituency to be represented in the legislative body.
(With inputs from PTI)
