Election Commission Announces Bye-election Schedule For RK Nagar, Sikandra, Sabang, Pakke-Kasand And Likabali

After taking into consideration various factors like local festivals, electoral rolls, weather conditions etc., the Commission has decided to hold bye-elections.

New Delhi, Nov 24: The Election Commission on Friday announced the Assembly bye-election schedule for RK Nagar (Tamil Nadu), Sikandra (Uttar Pradesh), Sabang (West Bengal), Pakke-Kasang and Likabali (Arunachal Pradesh). The voting for the bye-election in these constituencies will be held on December 21. The counting date has been decided as December 24.

The RK Nagar seat fell vacant after the death of former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa. The announcement of the dates comes a day after the poll panel gave back the AIADMK two leaves symbol to the E Palaniswamy and O Panneerselvam faction, in what was seen as a major setback for VK Sasikala and TTV Dinakaran.

On Tuesday, the Madras High Court had reiterated that bye-elections to Chennai’s RK Nagar constituency should be conducted before December 31.

Sl. No.	State	Number & Name of Assembly Constituency
1	Arunachal Pradesh	12 – Pakke-Kasang (ST)
		28 – Likabali (ST)
2	Tamil Nadu	11 – Dr. Radhakrishnan Nagar
3	Uttar Pradesh	207-Sikandra
4	West Bengal	226-Sabang

After taking into consideration various factors like local festivals, electoral rolls, weather conditions etc., the Commission has decided to hold bye-elections to fill these vacancies  as per the programme mentioned as under:

Poll Events	Schedule
Date of Issue of Gazette Notification	27.11.2017 (MON)
Last Date of Nominations	04.12.2017 (MON)
Date for Scrutiny of Nominations	05.12.2017 (TUE)
Last Date for Withdrawal of candidatures	07.12.2017 (THU)
Date of Poll	21.12.2017 (THU)
Date of Counting	24.12.2017 (SUN)
Date before which election shall be completed	26.12.2017 (TUE)

In consonance with the past practice, the Commission has decided that the voter’s identification shall be mandatory in the aforementioned bye- elections at the time of poll. Electoral Photo Identity Cards (EPIC) shall be the main document of identification of a voter. However, in order to ensure that no voter is deprived of his/her franchise, if his/her name figures in the Electoral Rolls, separate instructions will be issued to allow additional documents for identification of voters at the time of poll in the said bye-elections.

The Commission has decided to use EVMs and VVPATs in the bye-elections in all the polling stations. Adequate numbers of EVMs and VVPATs have been made available and all steps have been taken to ensure that the polls are conducted smoothly with the help of these machines.

The Model Code of Conduct shall come into force with immediate effect in the district(s) in which the whole or any part of the Assembly Constituency going for bye-election is included, subject to partial modification as issued vide Commission’s instruction No. 437/6/INST/2016-CCS, dated 29th June, 2017. The Model Code of Conduct shall be applicable to all candidates, political parties and the State Government concerned. The Model Code of Conduct shall also be applicable to the Union Government for the State concerned.