By-elections in 63 assembly seats in 17 states, Puducherry with Haryana and Maharashtra polls

New Delhi: The bypolls in 63 assembly seats in 17 states and Puducherry, a union territory, and one Lok Sabha seat in Bihar will be held along with state elections in Haryana and Maharashtra on October 21, the Election Commission said on Saturday. The votes will be counted on October 24.
The by-elections will be held in Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha, Puducherry, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora told said a press conference.
“I request the cooperation of all stakeholders in this democratic exercise,” he said.
In Karnataka, where resignations of 17 rebel MLAs led to collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy government in July, bypolls will be held in 15 seats.
These are the first state polls after the national election this year that the BJP swept, clearing the way for a second term of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
This will also be the first time that elections will be held in Assam after the release of final citizens’ list last month. By-elections will be held in four assembly constituencies in the state.
In Bihar, by-elections will be held in four assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat.
The Election Commission also announced the poll schedule for 11 seats in Uttar Pradesh, five seats each in Kerala and Bihar, four seats each in Gujarat and Punjab, three seats in Sikkim, two seats each in Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan and one seat each in Arunachal Pradesh, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Odisha and Puducherry.
The last date to file nomination for bypolls is September 30 and the last date to withdraw the poll nomination is October 3.
During the press conference, Arora appealed to the political parties to avoid plastic, joining PM Modi on the issue. “Election campaigns impose an environmental cost upon us. We appeal to political parties to avoid use of plastic and use only environment-friendly material in their campaigns,” he was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.