26 Assembly by-elections to be held along with Lok Sabha polls

By-elections to 26 Assembly seats in 13 States, including Himachal Pradesh, due to disqualifications and resignations.

By-elections to 26 Assembly seats across 13 States, including six constituencies in Himachal Pradesh where Congress MLAs were disqualified for rebellion, will be held along with the Lok Sabha elections beginning April 19.

"There are 26 Assembly constituencies where by-elections are due. These are in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Telangana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu," Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said at a press conference in news Delhi on March 16.

Six assembly seats in Himachal Pradesh – Dharamshala, Lahaul and Spiti, Sujanpur, Barsar, Gagret and Kutlehar – will go to polls on June 1 along with the Lok Sabha elections.

Congress MLAs Sudhir Sharma, Ravi Thakur, Rajinder Rana, Inder Dutt Lakhanpal, Chaitanya Sharma and Devinder Kumar were disqualified for disobeying the party whip to be present in the assembly and vote in favour of the government during the discussion on the State budget.

In Gujarat, elections to five assembly constituencies, where the incumbent MLAs quit their seats to join the BJP, will be held on May 7. Gujarat Congress MLAs C.J. Chavda (Vijapur), Chirag Patel (Khambhat), Arvind Ladani (Manavadar), Arjun Modhwadia (Porbandar) and Independent legislator Dharmendrasinh Vaghela (Vaghodia) quit their respective seats to join the BJP.

Bypoll for the Karnal seat in Haryana, vacated by former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar, will be held on May 25. Mr. Khattar resigned as MLA on March 14 and the new legislator will get a term of about seven months.

The bypoll for the Agiaon assembly seat in Bihar, Duddhi in Uttar Pradesh and Baranagar in West Bengal will be held on June 1. The Agiaon seat fell vacant after the disqualification of CPI (M-L) legislator Manoj Manji, who was found guilty in a nine-year-old murder case and sentenced to life imprisonment. Trinamool Congress MLA from Baranagar, Tapas Roy, resigned to join the BJP. BJP MLA from Duddhi, Ram Dular, was disqualified after his conviction in a rape case. The bypoll for the Gainsari assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh, which fell vacant after the death of SP MLA Shiv Pratap Yadav, will be held on May 25.