Election Commission of India announced dates of upcoming by-polls for four states. The by-polls are slated to take place in the states of Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Tripura, and Kerala.
Bye-elections to four State Legislative Assembly seats in Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Tripura, and Uttar Pradesh will be held on 23 September. pic.twitter.com/v2bbBmonYE
— ANI (@ANI) August 25, 2019
By-poll for assembly seats of Hamirpur (Uttar Pradesh), Dantewada (Chhattisgarh), Pala (Kerala), Badharghat (Tripura) is scheduled to take place on September 23, as confirmed by ECI notification.
The by-polls have been necessitated by the vacancy on these following seats. The death of sitting legislators from Dantewada, Pala and Badharghat made the respective seats fall vacant. While in Hamirpur, BJP MLA Ashok Chandel was disqualified.
In Dantewada, BJP MLA Bhima Mandavi was killed in a Maoist attack with five others on April 9. Dantewada seat is seen as a fierce battle for BJP and Congress. It is said that the seat of Dantewada is important for the saffron party to hold its position in Bastar, while for Congress, it is more about expanding its reach in the state. The Congress needs this seat to complete all the seats in Bastar basket.
Dantewada seat was among the few 12 seats that BJP won in the recent elections. Here, BJP candidate Bhima Mandavi defeated Congress candidate Devti Karma. Though the candidature for the seats from both the parties is yet not decided, it is expected that the parties will come up the names soon since there is less than a month left for the by-polls.
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