Bypolls to 4 Lok Sabha, 10 assembly seats on May 28

The bypoll to the Kairana Lok Sabha seat in Uttar Pradesh will be held on May 28 as the Election Commission on Thursday announced dates for bypolls to four Lok Sabha seats and 10 assembly seats across ten states.

Apart from Kairana in Uttar Pradesh, parliamentary bypolls will be held on May 28 for Palghar and Bhandara-Gondiya in Maharashtra and to the Nagaland seat.

The seats where assembly bypolls will be held on May 28 are Noorpur (Uttar Pradesh), Shahkot (Punjab), Jokihat (Bihar), Gomia and Silli (Jharkhand), Chengannur (Kerala), Palus Kadegaon (Maharashtra), Ampati (Meghalaya), Tharali (Uttarakhand) and Maheshtala (West Bengal).

Counting on all the seats will take place on May 31.

The bypoll in Kairana gains significance as the ruling BJP had lost two prestigious Lok Sabha bypolls in Uttar Prdesh in March after the Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party joined hands against it.

The BJP lost Gorakhpur, earlier represented by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and the Phulpur, earlier represented by Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya.

The success of Samajwadi Party candidates in both Gorakhpur and Phulpur had come as a boost to efforts by opposition parties to forge a a common understanding against the BJP in the run up to 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The contest in Kairana will be watched with considerable interest as the seat was also held by the BJP. The vacancy arose after death of sitting MP Hukum Singh.

Bhandara-Gondiya and Palghar Lok Sabha seats were also held by the BJP.

Byelection to Bhandara-Gondiya Lok Sabha seat was necessitated when in early December 2017, sitting member Nana Patole quit the BJP and the Lok Sabha seat to join the Congress.

The Palghar seat in north Konkan fell vacant after the sitting BJP MP Chintaman Vanga died on January 30 following a heart attack.

Nagaland Lok Sabha seat fell vacant following resignation of Neiphiu Rio, who was elected as Chief Minister.

The BJP, which had won an absolute majority in the 2014 General Elections with 282 seats, has lost seven seats in Lok Sabha by-elections held so far in the last four years and its present tally is 274.

The last date of nominations is May 10, scrutiny of nominations will take place on May 11 and May 14 is the last date of withdrawal of candidates.

The Election Commission said that Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and VVPATs will be deployed in the byelections at all polling stations.

--IANS

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