The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced bye-polls in two Parliamentary constituencies of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka along with 14 vacancies in Assembly constituencies of various states. The polling will be held on April 17 and the counting will take place on May 1.
For the Tirupati constituency in Andhra Pradesh, the YSRCP on Tuesday finalised Dr Gurumurthy, a physiotherapist by profession. The constituency was left vacant after the death of Member of Parliament Balli Durga Prasad Rao due to coronavirus disease. Dr Gurumurthy was reportedly the personal physiotherapist for Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy during his padayatra ahead of Assembly elections in 2019.
In Karnataka, the Belagavi constituency fell vacant after the death of Suresh Angadi, Minister for Railways from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) due to the coronavirus disease in September 2020.
The ECI has also announced Assembly bye-elections at the Nagarjuna Sagar Assembly constituency in Telangana. The MLA seat for the constituency became vacant after the demise of Nomula Narasimhaiah of the Telangana Rastra Samithi (TRS). The TRS is yet to formally announce a candidate for the MLA seat but is actively considering Katteboyina Guravaiah Yadav (Nidamanuru mandal) for the post. Guravaiah Yadav is the son-in-law of former MLA Rammurthy Yadav and a close relative of the Rajya Sabha MP, Badugula Lingaiah Yadav, reported Deccan chronicle.
In Karnataka, two Assembly constituencies — Basavakalyan and Maski — will go to the polls. The Basavakalyan constituency goes to polls as B Narayan Rao, the Congress MLA from Basavakalyan of Bidar district, passed away due to coronavirus disease in September 2020. The Maski Assembly constituency fell vacant after the Congress MLA Pratap Gowda Patil quit the party to join BJP.
The dates for bye-polls at the Sindagi constituency in Karnataka was not announced.
ECI has also announced elections in Gujarat's Morva Hadaf, Jharkhand's Madhupur, Madhya Pradesh's Damoh, Maharashtra's Pandharpur, Mizoram's Serchhip, Nagaland's Noksen, Odisha's Pipili and Uttarakhand's Salt. In Rajasthan, three Assembly constituencies will go to polls — Sahara, Sujangarh and Rajsamand.