Udupi-Chikmagalur Bypoll on March 18, Results on 21
Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi
Udupi, Feb 16: The much-awaited Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha bypoll will be held on March 18, and the results will be announced on March 21.
The Udupi-Chikmagalur seat was vacated by Sadananda Gowda after he became the chief minister in August 2011.
Since then, major political parties have been gearing up to contest for the seat, and various names of potential candidates have cropped up in BJP and Congress camps. While in the Congress, the name of Jayaprakash Hegde has been doing the rounds, it is Sunil Kumar and Udaya Kumar Shetty in the BJP.
The notifications for the bypoll would be issued on February 22.
February 29 will be the last date for filing nominations, and the verification will be done on March 1. The last date for withdrawal of candidates will be March 3, the election commission announced on Thursday February 16.
The bypoll is seen as prestige issue for the BJP, as the chief minister himself had occupied the seat, and the party would want to retain it. The Congress on the other hand is hopeful of a victory given the BJP's recent scams and controversies, and the fact that it lost badly in Bellary bypoll recently.
Along with Udupi-Chikmagalur, by-elections would be held for 11 Assembly constituencies in five states, of which seven are in Andhra Pradesh.
Mahabubnagar, Nagarkurnool, Kovur, Ghanpur (Station) (SC), Kollapur, Adilabad and Kamareddy in AP will go for bypolls.
The bypolls will also be held for assembly seats in Mansa (Gujarat), Piravom (Kerala), Sankaran Kovil (SC) (Tamil Nadu) and Athgarh (Odisha).