By-elections to three Lok Sabha and two legislative assembly constituencies will be held in Karnataka on November 3 to fill vacancies, Election Commission said on Saturday. The counting of votes is on November 6.
"Bye-elections will be held on November 3 in the Lok Sabha constituencies of Shimoga, Bellary (ST) and Mandya and assembly seats of Ramanagaram and Jamkhandi," said Election Commission Principal Secretary Sumit Mukherjee in a statement from New Delhi.
The vacancies in the three parliamentary seats were caused due to the resignation of BJP members B.S. Yeddyurappa from Shimoga in Malnad region and B. Sriramulu from Bellary in the northwest region and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) S. Puttaraju from Mandya in the old Mysuru region after they were elected to the in the May 16 election.
Yeddyurappa won from Shikaripura assembly segment in Shimoga district and Sriramulu from Molakalmuru reserved (ST) assembly seat in Chitradurga district.
Puttaraju, who was elected from the Melukote assembly seat in Mandya district, is the Minor Irrigation Minister in the JD-S-Congress coalition government.
The vacancy in the two assembly seats have been caused following the resignation of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy of the JD-S from Ramanagaram and owing to the death of Congress legislator Siddu Nyamagouda in a road accident on May 28 in Bagalkot district. He was newly elected from Jamkhandi in the state's northwest district.
Kumaraswamy, who contested and won from two adjacent assembly seats retained the Channapatna seat in Ramanagaram district, 65km from Bengaluru.
The bye-polls will be notified on October 9, last date for nominations is on October 16, scrutiny on October 17 and last date for withdrawal of candidatures is on October 20.
Electoral rolls for all the bye-elections have been published on October 1.
"Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPATs) will be used in all the polling stations for the bye-election," added the statement.
In the 28 Lok Sabha seats from the southern state, BJP has 15, Congress 9 and JD-S 1, with three vacant.
In the 224-member assembly segments, BJP has 104, Congress 79 and JD-S 36.
--IANS
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