A representative image of voting.
Credit: iStock photo
Jaipur: Voting for bypolls on seven assembly seats in Rajasthan will be held on November 13, the results of which will be declared on November 23, according to the Election Commission of India.
At a press conference in New Delhi on Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar announced the schedule for bypolls in 48 assembly constituencies spread and two parliamentary constituencies spread across 15 states.
Rajasthan's Chief Electoral Officer Naveen Mahajan said that with the announcement of the bypolls, the code of conduct has come into force in the respective assemblies. The code of conduct will be applicable in Dausa, Dungarpur, Alwar, Jhunjhunu, Tonk, Nagaur and Salumbar.
The notification for the bypoll will be issued on October 18 and with that the nomination process for the candidates will start, which will run till 3 pm on October 25. The nomination papers will be scrutinised on October 28 and names can be withdrawn till October 30.
Mahajan held a meeting with representatives of various recognised political parties of the state in Jaipur. Political parties were informed about the schedule of this year's assembly bypolls and the Model Code of Conduct.
In Rajasthan, bypolls will be held in Jhunjhunu, Dausa, Deoli-Uniara, Khinvsar, Chaurasi, Salumbar and Ramgarh assembly seats.
Out of the seven seats on which bypolls are to be held, four of them were with the Congress.
Two of these by-elections are being held due to the deaths of the MLAs: Ramgarh's Congress MLA Zubair Khan and Salumbar's BJP MLA Amritlal Meena.
In five constituencies, the MLAs were elected as MPs in the Lok Sabha polls, necessitating bypolls. They are Congress MLA Brijendra Ola from Jhunjhunu, Congress MLA Harish Chandra Meena from Dausa, Rashtriya Loktantrik Party MLA Hanuman Beniwal from Khinsivar and Rajkumar Roat of Bharat Adivasi Party from Chaurasi.
Currently, the 200-seat state assembly has 114 MLAs of the Bharatiya Janata Party, 65 of the Congress, three of the Bharat Adivasi Party, two of the Bahujan Samaj Party, one of the Rashtriya Lok Dal and eight Independent MLAs.
As per official data, there are 1,862 polling stations and 19,36,532 voters in the seven assembly seats that will hold bypolls next month.
After the dates of the bypolls were announced, Congress state president Govind Dotasra the BJP "will get zero seats in the bypolls".
Taking a dig at the state government's tenure so far, he said, "The nine to ten months of BJP government in Rajasthan have left people completely disappointed and distressed. People are saying that the government has become a circus," he said.
BJP state president Madan Rathore also claimed victory on all seats in a statement and said that there is enthusiasm among BJP workers and lotus will bloom on all seats.
He said that the Bhajanlal Sharma government of the state has done welfare work for all sections of the society in 10 months. In such a situation, BJP workers will go among the people with the works of the government and BJP candidates will register victory with majority on all seats.
The Assembly polls in Maharashtra will be held in a single phase on November 20, while Jharkhand polls will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20, the Election Commission said. Votes will be counted on November 23.