Bhubaneswar: The Election Commission of India has finally announced that it would conduct the Bijepur Assembly by-poll February 24.
As per the commission’s notification the gazette notification for the by-election will be issued January 30 and the last date for filing nominations will be February 6.
The scrutiny of nominations will be on February 7 and the last date for withdrawal of nomination will be February 9.
Voting for will be held February 24 and the counting of votes and announcement of the result will be done February 28, the commission said.
The commission in its notification said that it announced the by-election dates after taking into consideration factors like local festivals, electoral rolls and weather among others.
Accordingly, the ECI said, the Model Code of Conduct will come into force immediately in Bargarh district.
The announcement of the date for the by-poll has come five months after the Bijepur seat fell vacant August 22, 2017 following the death of Congress MLA Subal Sahu.
The alleged delay by ECI in announcing the dates for the by-poll, which had triggered a political fight in the state, had also dragged the commission to the Delhi High Court.
Hearing the writ petition against the ECI over the delay in the notification of the dates for the Bijepur by-poll the Delhi High Court Monday (January 22) sought a response on the issue from the Commission within seven days.
Kanak Foundation had filed the petition before the court January 19 stating that though five months have passed since the demise of the winning candidate, the ECI has not yet issued a notification. This militates against Section 151A of the Representation of People’s Act, the counsels of the petitioner had argued.
The Chief Electoral Officer of Orissa has already procured VVPATs and EVMs for the by-poll. It has also issued a fresh voters’ list according to which the total number of voters in the constituency is 2,21,144.
PNN
