Election Commission Announces By-Polls For 13 Assembly Constituencies Across Seven States: Here's All About Them

The Election Commission announced on Monday (10 June) that by-polls for 13 assembly constituencies across seven states, including four in West Bengal, will take place on 10 July.

These by-polls are being held to fill vacancies created by the deaths or resignations of incumbent members.

The assembly seats due for by-polls are Rupauli (Bihar), Raiganj, Ranaghat Dakshin, Bagda, and Maniktala (West Bengal), Vikravandi (Tamil Nadu), Amarwara (Madhya Pradesh), Badrinath and Manglaur (Uttarakhand), Jalandhar West (Punjab), and Dehra, Hamirpur, and Nalagarh (Himachal Pradesh).

Rupauli seat is facing fresh elections due to resignation by sitting MLA Bima Bharati who left JD(U) to join RJD before the Lok Sabha elections. However, she came third in Purnia.

In Raiganj, BJP MLA Krishna Kalyani switched to the Trinamool Congress (TMC) but was defeated in the contest for Raiganj Lok Sabha seat by BJP candidate Kartik Paul.

Biswajit Das, who had initially left the TMC to join the BJP ahead of the 2021 assembly elections, returned to the TMC after being elected from Bagdah, necessitating by-poll there. However, he lost the Lok Sabha elections to the BJP's Shantanu Thakur in the Bongaon constituency.

Another BJP MLA, Mukut Mani Adhikari who was presiding Ranaghat seat, joined the TMC and was nominated as the candidate for the Ranaghat Lok Sabha seat, but was defeated by the BJP’s incumbent MP, Jagannath Sarkar.

On the other hand, the Maniktala seat has fallen vacant due to the demise of veteran TMC leader Sadhan Pandey. Similarly, the vacancy in Vikravandi was declared following the death of DMK legislator N Pugazhenthi in April this year.

The by-election in Amarwara was necessitated after Kamlesh Shah, a three-time Congress MLA, resigned this year and joined the ruling BJP soon after.

The Mangalur seat in Uttarakhand fell vacant after demise of sitting BSP MLA Kareem Ansari while the Badrinath seat also got included in by-poll list due to the change in affiliation of sitting MLA Rajendra Bhandari towards BJP.

The Jalandhar West seat also became vacant after the resignation of the sitting AAP MLA, Sheetal Angural, who defected to the BJP, along with the then AAP Lok Sabha MP from Jalandhar, Sushil Kumar Rinku.

In the assembly seats of Hamirpur, Dehra and Nalagarh, the by-polls were necessitated due to the resignation of the incumbent members, interestingly, all of which were held by Independents.

The election notification will be issued on 14 June, with 21 June as the last date for filing nomination papers. The nomination papers will be scrutinised on 24 June, and the last date for withdrawing nominations is 26 June.

The by-polls will be conducted on 10 July, and the counting of votes will take place on 13 July.

The Election Commission has stated that the by-polls must be completed by 15 July.