Khandu's constituency to go on poll July 14

Itanagar, Jun 16: Elections for Mukto Assembly constituency in Tawang district of Arunachal Pradesh, which fell vacant after the untimely death of former chief minister Dorjee Khandu, would be held on July 14, election officials said today (June 16).

Pema Khandu, the eldest son of Dorjee Khandu, is expected to contest from the constituency in the by-poll.

He was recently inducted as the Tourism and the Water Resources Development (WRD) Minister on May 20 in the Jarbom Gamlin council.

While the notification will be issued on June 20, the last date of filing nominations is June 27. The scrutiny would be on June 28 and last date of withdrawal of candidature is June 30, officials said.

Counting of votes would be on July 18. Dorjee Khandu had won the seat for five consecutive times, including three times unopposed during 1990, 2004 and 2009.

Bye-election was necessitated as the seat remained vacant following Khandu's death on April 30 in a chopper crash at Luguthang along with four others on board.

With the announcement of election, the provision of the model code of conduct has come into force in Tawang, election office sources said.

The election commission further directed all the departments to take note of the model code of conduct and added that any violation of the instruction regarding ban on transfer of officer and officials connected with conduct of election, payment out of discretionary fund will be viewed very seriously.

PTI