EC announces bypoll to two Lok Sabha, 48 Assembly seats

Byelections will be held in as many as 48 Assembly seats spread across 14 states, including four in Punjab, and two Lok Sabha seats on November 13 and 20, the Election Commission said on Tuesday.

Among the two Lok Sabha seats is the prestigious Wayanad constituency, which was vacated by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.

The four seats of Punjab where byelections will be held are Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal, Gidderbaha and Barnala. Barring the Kedarnath Assembly seat in Uttarakhand and Nanded Lok Sabha seat in Maharashtra where polling will be held on November 20, all seats will witness polling on November 13.

The results of all byelections will be announced on November 23, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar told mediapersons.

Uttar Pradesh will witness byelections on nine seats, while the decision to hold elections on the 10th seat, Milkipur, which falls in Ayodhya, has been postponed.

EC officials said since BJP candidate Baba Gorakhnath had challenged the 2022 Assembly election verdict on the seat in the Allahabad High Court and the matter was sub judice, the schedule for this seat could not be announced on Tuesday.

Samajwadi Party MP Awadesh Prasad, who made the headlines by winning the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat, under which Ayodhya falls, was the MLA from Milkipur prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He had won from Milkipur in 2022, but his victory was challenged by BJP’s losing candidate Baba Gorakhnath and the matter is still pending in court.

Other Assembly seats where bypolls will be held include seven in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four in Bihar, two each in Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and Sikkim, and one each in Uttarakhand, Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.