New Delhi:
The Election Commission on Friday announced the schedule for by-elections to Agra North and Darjeeling Assembly constituencies in the State of Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal respectively. While the polling in both the seat will take place on May 19, the counting of votes will be taken up along with those of the Lok Sabha seats on May 23, the poll panel said.
The Commission will issue the election notification on April 22 and the candidates will be allowed to file their nominations till April 29. The last date for withdrawal of candidature is May 2.
"After taking into consideration various factors like, festival, electoral rolls, etc., the Commission has decided to hold the by-election to fill this vacancy," the EC said in a statement, adding that EVMs and VVPATs will be used in the by-elections.
In Agra North, the by-poll has been necessitated following the death of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Jagan Prasad Garg due to cardiac arrest on April 10. He died after returning home from campaigning for the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.
The Darjeeling Assembly seat, on the other hand, fell vacant after the sitting All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) MLA Amar Singh Rai resigned following his nomination by the party to contest from the Darjeeling Lok Sabha constituency. Polling for the Darjeeling parliamentary constituency took place on April 18 in the second phase of General Elections 2019.
The last round of the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections will be held on May 19. While 9 Lok Sabha constituencies from West Bengal will go to polls on May 19, Uttar Pradesh will witness polling in 13 of its parliamentary constituencies on that day. Polling in both Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal is scheduled to take place in all seven phases between April 11 and May 19.
