Meerut LS bypoll put off, Muradnagar assy bypoll on Apr 12

New Delhi, Mar 14 (UNI) The Election Commission today stayed for the time being the byelection to the Meerut Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh slated for April 12.

The postponement came after it was brought to the notice of the commission that there was an Allahabad High Court order to maintain status quo regarding the seat declared vacant by the Speaker.

The EC yesterday announced the holding of by-elections to fill the four casual vacancies in the Lok Sabha and four State Legislative Assemblies vacancies on April 12.

LS elections were announced for four seats spread over two States of Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Uttar Pradesh (UP), while the SLA elections will also be held for four seats across Orissa, West Bengal and UP.

The EC said the byelection to the Meerut parliamentary constituency as announced earlier would not be held for the time being in view of the High Court order on a writ petition by one Md Shahid Akhlaq this year.

The EC has also announced the holding of byelection to the Muradnagar assembly seat in Uttar Pradesh along with four other seats on April 12.

The seat was vacated following the resignation of a sitting member of the house.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held on April 12 for Betul in MP and Azamgarh and Khalilabad in UP, while the contests for the SLA seats will be held for Laxmipur (ST) in Orissa, Kharba in West Bengal and Bilgram and Colonelganj both in UP.

The Commission has made adequate arrangements of the security forces after taking various factors for holding peaceful elections to enable voters to cast their votes fearlessly without any fear.

The notification for all these elections will be issued on March 19 and the last date for filng of nominations by candidates is March 26.

The scrutiny of nominations will be held on March 27 and the last date of withdrawal of nominations by candidature is fixed for March 29.

The counting of votes will be taken up on April 16 and the date of completion of the election process is fixed for April 18.

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