EC: Bihar polls, 65 bypolls will be held around same time

Vacant Assembly seats include 27 in MP

The Election Commission of India ( ECI) said on Friday that Bihar Assembly elections and bypolls for Lok Sabha and Assembly seats of other states will be held at around same time, dates for which will be announced at an “appropriate time”.

“Considering that General Assembly Elections of Bihar are also due and required to be completed before 29th November 2020, the Commission has decided to conduct all the 65 byelections and the General Assembly elections of Bihar around the same time. One of the major factors in clubbing them together is the relative ease of movement of Central Armed Police Forces ( CAPF)/ other law and order forces, and related logistics issues,” the ECI spokesperson said.

At present, there are 65 vacancies due for byelections in Assembly/ Parliamentary Constituency, out of which 64 are in the state Legislative Assemblies of various states and one is in a parliamentary constituency.

The Commission during a meeting on Friday reviewed the reports and inputs from chief secretaries and Chief Electoral Officers of many of the concerned states seeking deferment of the byelections in their states in view of several factors, including the extra- ordinary heavy rains in some places, and constraints like the corona pandemic.

The vacant Assembly seats include 27 in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, after former Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia and the MLAs supporting him quit the party and their posts as legislators in March this year.