EC to hold Karnataka assembly by-elections on Oct 21
Bengaluru: Election Commission of India (ECI), while declaring the dates for Maharastra and Haryana assembly elections, also announced to hold by-elections in Karnataka next month.
The Byelections will be held on October 21 in 15 constituencies, recently vacated by rebel MLAs (Member of Legislative Assembly) of Congress and Janata Dal (Secular). The counting will happen in the same week on October 24.
To recall, MLAs from Congress-JDS coalition government, citing non-co-operation from former CM HD Kumaraswamy in terms of allocation of funds to their respective constituencies, resigned from their posts in July 2019.
After several days of confusion over the resignations, the Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar under Anti-Defection Law disqualified 17 members (13 from Congres, 3 from JDS and one independent) from participating elections till the end of the current 15th Assembly (2018-23), provided there is no midterm poll in Karnataka.
As of now, there is no word, which 15 of the 17 constituencies, ECI will be holding the by-elections in Karnataka.
All the disqualified MLAs have filed a petition in the Apex court to overturn the disqualification order. The next hearing is slated to take place on September 23.
The notification for the by-elections will go live on September 27 and the last date for filing nominations is on October 4.
The scrutiny of the nomination is on October 5 and the last date for withdrawing the candidature is October 7.
