New Delhi: The Election Commission today announced bypolls to three assembly constituencies in Delhi which fell vacant after BJP MLAs were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently-held general elections.
Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath said bypolls to Krishna Nagar, Mehrauli and Tughlaqabad assembly seats will be held on November 25 along with the first phase of assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. The three seats of the 70-member Delhi Assembly fell vacant in May after sitting Bharatiya Janata Party legislators Harsh Vardhan, Pravesh Verma and Ramesh Bidhuri were elected to the Lok Sabha.
“For Delhi, we have come to the end of the road...we were awaiting developments in the Supreme Court. Now is the time (for bypolls in Delhi),” Sampath told reporters here. November 28 is the deadline for the poll body to hold bypolls in Delhi after the seats fell vacant. Election Commissioner H S Brahma later told reporters that in case the SC or the Delhi Lt Governor deciding to dissolve the Delhi Assembly, the EC notification regarding the bypolls would be withdrawn.
The notification for the bypolls will be issued on October 28, kickstarting the process of filing nominations. The last date of making nominations is November 5, while the scrutiny will take place on November 7. The last date of withdrawing names from the electoral battle has been fixed on November 10.
While polling will take place on November 25, counting will take place on December 23, along with those for Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand. The poll process in Delhi has to be completed by December 29.
The Delhi Assembly election results threw up a ‘hung assembly' as both major parties, BJP with its 32-seat haul and AAP with its 28 tally, fell short of th majority figure of 35 seats.
President's Rule was imposed in Delhi on February 17 after the Aam Aadmi Party government quit office on February 14.
A statement from the Election Commission later said the electoral rolls of the three assembly constituencies have been revised with reference to January 1, 2014 as the qualifying date and have been finally published on January 31, 2014 in the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
The Commission said Electoral Photo Identify Card (EPIC) will be the main document of identification of a voter. However, to ensure that no voter is deprived of his/her franchise, if his/her name figures in the electoral rolls, separate instructions will be issued to allow additional documents for identification of voter at the time of bypoll.
