By-election to half a dozen assembly seats in WB, Bihar and Punjab to be held next month

By-election to four Assembly seats - Maniktala, Raiganj, Ranaghat (south), and Bagdah in West Bengal will be held on July 10, according to a notification issued by the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday.

While the Maniktala seat in Kolkata (north) fell vacant after the death of the then MLA Sadhan Pande of TMC, the three other seats Raiganj (North Dinajpur), Ranaghat (south), and Bagdah in the Nadia district fell vacant after three BJP legislators had joined the ruling TMC and unsuccessfully contested the just-concluded Parliament polls.

In the Raiganj Assembly seat Krishna Kalyani joined the TMC but lost the Lok Sabha polls for the Raiganj seat to BJP candidate Kartik Paul. Biswajit Das of Bagdah seat also left the BJP after winning the 2021 assembly poll and joined the TMC but lost to BJP’s Shantanu Thakur in the Bongaon Lok Sabha seat.

Before the 2024 Parliament poll another BJP MLA, Mukut Mani Adhikari, joined the TMC and was fielded as the candidate for the Ranaghat seat, but he lost to the BJP’s sitting MP, Jagannath Sarkar.

According to the ECI, the notification for the by-election would be issued on June 14. June 21 is the last date for filing the nomination papers, and scrutiny of nomination papers will be done on June 24. June 26 is the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers.The by-election will be held on July 10 and counting will be done on July 13

By-election for Rupauli assembly seat on July 10

Election Commission on Monday announced that by-election for Rupauli assembly seat would be held on July 10.According to the Election Commission, polling for the by-election in the Rupauli seat will be held on July 10 and notification for the election will be issued on June 14.

Filing of nomination papers will begin with issuance of notification on June 14 and it will continue till June 21, the last day of nomination papers to be submitted.Scrutiny of the papers will be conducted on June 24 and candidates could withdraw their nominations by June 26.The counting of votes will be taken up on July 13.

Rupali assembly seat had fallen vacant after the resignation of sitting JD(U) MLA Beema Bharti who deserted her party to join RJD. She had contested Lok Sabha elections from Purnea recently on RJD ticket.

Jalandhar West assembly bypoll on July 10

Punjab Chief Electoral Officer, Sibin C has informed that voting will be held for Jalandhar West (SC) assembly bypoll on July 10.The Jalandhar West seat fell vacant after the resignation of MLA Sheetal Angural.

As per the Election Commission of India notification will be issued on June 14 (Friday) and the last date for filing nominations will be June 21 (Friday). The nomination papers will be scrutinised on June 24 (Monday), while the last date for withdrawal of nomination papers is June 26 (Wednesday).

He added that voting will be held on July 10 (Wednesday) and the result will be announced on July 13 (Saturday) after the counting of votes.He further said that the model code of conduct (MCC) is applicable in Jalandhar West Constituency from Monday. The MCC will remain in force until the election process is completed by July 15.(UNI)<>