Bypolls to Budgam, Nagrota Assembly seats in J&K; ECI issues notification

Srinagar, Oct 13 (IANS) Election Commission of India (ECI) on Monday notified bypolls to the Nagrota and Budgam Legislative Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir on November 11.

The seats fell vacant because of the death of the incumbent MLA of Nagrota and the resignation of the incumbent MLA from the Budgam seat.

The ECI notification has fixed October 20 as the date for filing nominations, October 22 for scrutiny of nomination papers and October 24 as the last date for withdrawal of nominations.

Voting for the seats would be held on November 11, and the entire poll process must be completed before November 16.

Timing for the polling has been fixed from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Two seats in the 90-member J&K Legislative Assembly fell vacant after the October 2024 elections. The Budgam seat in the Valley fell vacant when National Conference (NC) vice president, Omar Abdullah, resigned from this seat after winning two Assembly seats of Budgam and Ganderbal.

Omar Abdullah decided to hold the Ganderbal seat and gave up the Budgam seat. Nagrota seat fell vacant after the death of the BJP MLA, Devender Singh Rana, on October 31, 2024.

In the 90-member J&K Assembly, NC won 42 seats, the BJP 29, Congress 6, PDP 3, CPI(M) 1, AAP 1, AIP 1, PC 1 and 6 Independents.

The Independents later joined the NC, while the Congress decided to support the NC government from outside without joining the government.

--IANS

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The ECI has already notified elections for four Rajya Sabha seats from J&K after these fell vacant on the expiry of the term of incumbent members.

The Rajya Sabha elections were announced by the ECI in J&K after more than four years as there was no legislative assembly in J&K after February 2021. NC has nominated three candidates for three seats while the BJP has also nominated 3 candidates.

The Congress was offered the 4th seat for contest by the NC, but the former has decided not to field a candidate for the 4th seat.

IANS