Bypoll on September 13 to seats vacated by Modi, Mulayam

Bypolls to the Lok Sabha seats vacated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav will be held on September 13, the Election Commission announced on Saturday.

Bypoll will also be held to Medak Lok Sabha seat vacated by Telangana Rashtra Samithi chief K Chandrasekhar Rao after he became the first Chief Minister of Telangana.

While Modi had retained Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, he vacated Vadodra in Gujarat. Similarly, Yadav had vacated Mainpuri and retained Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav and Rao had resigned on May 26, while Modi tendered his resignation on May 29. All the three resignations were accepted with effect from May 29.

The poll body also announced bypolls to 33 assembly seats vacated due to a various reasons in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.

Announcing the schedule, EC said while filing of nominations will start from August 20. The last date of filing nomination is August 27.

The scrutiny of papers will be held the next day on August 28 and August 30 has been decided as the last date of withdrawing from the electoral race. While bypolls will be held on September 13, the counting will be held on September 16. EC proposes to complete the election exercise by September 19, a statement said.

The poll panel has not yet announced bypoll for Beed Lok Sabha constituency in Maharashtra, which fell vacant following the demise of Union Minister Gopinath Munde in a road mishap recently.