Bypoll to Satara LS seat on Oct 21: EC

The Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday announced that the bypoll to Maharashtra's Satara parliamentary constituency will be held on October 21 along with the Assembly elections in the state.

The decision to hold the bypoll was taken after the Bombay High Court decided on an election petition on Satara Lok Sabha elections.

The bypoll was necessitated after Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader and sitting MP Udayanraje Bhoslae, a descendant of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, resigned as Lok Sabha MP within four months on September 14 and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The poll panel said that the result of the bypoll will be announced on October 24 along with the Assembly election results.

"The High Court sent its communication to the Commission on September 23 and, thus the dates for the bypoll has been announced now," an EC official said.

The Commission said that the notification for the Satara bypoll will be issued on Friday, while the last date for filing nomination will be October 4.

The scrutiny of the nomination papers will take place on October 5 and the last date for withdrawing candidature is October 7.

Bhosale, 53, was elected as an MP from Satara thrice -- in 2009, 2014 and 2019.

In this year's Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 23 out of 48 seats in Maharashtra while its alliance partner Shiv Sena managed to win 18 seats. The NCP won four seats while the Congress managed to win only one seat in the state.

On September 21, the poll panel announced the schedule for the Assembly polls in the state.

The term of the Maharashtra Assembly ends on November 9. In the 2014 Assembly polls in Maharashtra, the BJP had won 122 seats, its ally Shiv Sena 63 seats, the Congress 42, and the NCP 41 seats while others managed 20. The Congress and the NCP had contested the 2014 polls separately after sharing power for 15 years in the state. IANS