The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced on Monday, June 10, that the bye-elections for 13 Assembly constituencies across India would be conducted on July 10. The counting and announcement of results will take place on July 13.
The ECI said that candidate nominations must be submitted by June 21, and they will be examined by June 24. Candidates have until June 26 to decide whether or not to withdraw their candidacy. The ECI also noted that the bypolls have to be completed before July 15.
In three of the seats — namely Manglaur in Uttarakhand, Maniktala in West Bengal, and Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu — the bye-polls are to be held against vacancies created due to the deaths of the respective Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs). In the 10 other seats, the elected MLAs have submitted their resignations.
The vacancies due to death include Sadhan Pandey from Maniktala, Sarwat Karim Ansari from Manglaur, and N Pugazhenthi from Vikravandi.
The vacancies due to resignation include Hoshyar Singh from Dehra constituency in Himachal Pradesh, Ashish Sharma from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, KL Thakur from Nalagarh Himachal Pradesh, Sheetal Angural from Jalandhar West (SC) in Punjab, Rajendra Singh Bhandari from Badrinath in Uttarakhand, Kamlesh Pratap Shah from Amarwara (ST) in Madhya Pradesh, Bima Bharti from Rupauli in Bihar, Krishna Kalyani from Raiganj in West Bengal, Dr. Mukut Mani Adhikari from Ranaghat Dakshin in West Bengal, and Biswajit Das from Bagda (SC) in West Bengal.
Vikravandi in Tamil Nadu is the only Assembly constituency from the five southern states that will go to polls on July 10, following the death of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) MLA N Pugazhenthi in April 2024. In the 2021 Assembly elections, Pugazhenthi had won against the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)’s R Muthamilselvan.