Bypolls in these 2 constituencies on Feb 5 along with Delhi assembly election

The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule for the much-awaited Delhi assembly elections on Tuesday. In addition to Delhi, two assembly constituencies—one each from Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu—will also go for by-polls. The constituencies are Uttar Pradesh’s Milkipur and Tamil Nadu’s Erode (East).

Bypolls in these two constituencies will coincide with the Delhi assembly polls. The voting will be done in a single phase on February 5, 2025, and the votes will be counted on February 8, 2025.

The date of notification will be January 10 and the last date of making nominations will be January 17. Scrutiny of nominations will be done on January 18 and withdrawal of nominations will have to be completed by January 20. After polling on February 5 and results on February 8, the entire election process will be completed by February 10, said Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar.

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While bypolls in UP’s Milkipur are triggered by Samajwadi Party’s now-MP Awadhesh Prasad’s resignation, Tamil Nadu’s Erode (East) is going to bypolls due to the death of Congress MLA EVKS Elangovan.

Why are all pending bypolls not being conducted?

Milkipur and Erode are not the only two assembly constituencies which await bypolls. Other constituencies where bypolls are due are Jammu and Kashmir’s Budgam and Nagrota assembly constituencies, Gujarat’s Visavadar assembly constituency and West Bengal’s Basirhat parliamentary constituency.

Addressing why all bypolls are not being conducted, CEC Rajiv Kumar said on Tuesday that they are not conducting elections In Jammu and Kashmir due to “snow conditions”.

“Before you ask me why other bypolls are not being done, let me answer you. There are two constituencies in J&K which are due for election - Budgam and Nagrota. Because of snow conditions, we will do it later. We still have time till April. Before that, we will complete those elections,” said CEC Rajiv Kumar.

For the remaining two constituencies, Gujarat’s Visavadar assembly constituency and West Bengal’s Basirhat parliamentary constituency, CEC cited pending election petitions as the reason behind not conducting bypolls there.

“In both these cases, there are election petitions (EPs) pending and the rule is if there are election petitions pending, we do not do elections there. The moment EPs are decided, we will be ready to do it as was the case with Milkipur earlier,” he said.

Delhi assembly poll

Delhi is set to witness a fierce three-way fight between the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) , Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Indian National Congress (INC). AAP and Congress, which are INDIA bloc allies, are set to go head-to-head against each other in the upcoming Delhi polls.

Voting for the 70 assembly seats in Delhi will be conducted in a single phase of February 5 and counting will be done on February 8.

Out of Delhi’s 70 constituencies, 58 are general while 12 are reserved for the Scheduled Castes. There are 1.55 crore voters in the national capital, out of which, 83.49 lakh are male and 71.74 lakh are females. There are 25.89 lakh young voters and 2.08 first-time voters in Delhi for the upcoming polls. There are 830 centenarian voters in Delhi, 1,261 transgender voters, and 1.09 voters who are aged 85 and above.