Polling will be held on February 13, and the counting of votes will be taken up on February 16.
The Election Commission of India has announced the schedule for the by-election to the Narayankhed Assembly constituency in the Medak district along with those for 12 other Assembly constituencies in eight States, including Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Karnataka and Maharashtra. The by-elections will be held on February 13, and the election notification will be released on January 20.
Polling in the Narayankhed Assembly constituency will be held on February 13, and the counting of votes will be taken up on February 16. Nominations can be filed till January 27, and the last date for the withdrawal of nominations will be January 30.
The by-election to the Narayankhed constituency has been necessitated due to the demise of its earlier Congress MLA.
By-elections will be also held in for the Muzzafarnagar, Deoband and Bikapur Assembly constituences in Uttar Pradesh, the Devadurga, Bidar and Hebbal Assembly constituences in Karnataka, the Khadoor Sahib Assembly constituency in Punjab, the Palghar Assembly constituency in Maharashtra, the Harlakhee Assembly constituency in Bihar, the Amarpur Assembly constituency in Tripura, and the Maihar Assembly constituency in Madhya Pradesh on the same day - February 13.
All the three seats in UP were held by the ruling Samajwadi Party. The Devadurga seat in Karnataka was held by the ruling Congress, while Bidar and Hebbal were held by the BJP.
The Khadoor Sahib seat in Punjab was held by the Congress, while Harlakhee in Bihar was held by the RLSP. In Tripura's Amarpur, the bypoll was necessitated after the CPI (M) expelled its sitting MLA M Acharjee, who later resigned from the Assembly in December 2015. The bypoll to Palghar in Maharashtra has been due since June 2015 but the EC could not move ahead as an election petition was pending.
The Election Commission has decided to use EVMs in the by-elections in all the polling stations of these States. The Commission has also decided that voter's identification will be mandatory, with the Elector's Photo Identity Card (EPIC) being 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.