Bye-polls for two Karnataka seats on April 9

Bye-elections to the Nanjangud and Gundlupet assembly seats in Karnataka will be held on April 9, the Election Commission announced on Thursday.

The vote count will take place on April 13.

The bye-polls were necessitated due to the resignation of Congress MLA V. Srinivas Prasad from Nanjangud (Reserved) seat in December and the death of Cooperation Minister H.C. Mahadeva Prasad on January 3. He represented Gundlupet.

"The by-polls will be notified on March 14. The last date of filing nominations is March 21, scrutiny will take place on March 22 and the last date of withdrawal is March 24," the announcement said.

Prasad, 68, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on January 2 after quitting the ruling Congress. He was dropped during a cabinet reshuffle by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in July 2016.

Prasad was the Revenue Minister since May 2013 after the Congress returned to power in 2013.

Prasad will contest the Nanjangud bye-poll on BJP ticket. He represented the reserved seat as Congress lawmaker for two consecutive terms since May 2008.

A former union minister for Civil Supplies in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, Prasad rejoined the Congress in 2008. He resigned from the erstwhile Janata Dal (United) when the party split in the state in 1999.

A veteran Dalit leader, Prasad was a five-time Lok Sabha lawmaker from the Chamarajanagar (Reserved) Lok Sabha constituency as a Congress member from 1980 to 1996 and as JD-U member from 1999 to 2004.

The Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular will announce their candidates for both the seats next week.

--IANS

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