The Election Commission of India on Tuesday announced byepolls to two Assembly constituencies in Karnataka-- Sindgi and Hangal—will be held on October 30. The byelections have been necessitated as they fell vacant following the death of JD(S) legislator MC Manguli in Sindgi and BJP's C M Udasi in Hangal.
The election notification will be issued on October 1, which also marks the commencement of filing of nominations.
October 8 is the last day for filing of nominations. Scrutiny will take place on October 1, and October 13 is the last day for withdrawal. Counting of votes will be taken up on November two. The Election Commission on Tuesday announced that bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats and 30 assembly constituencies will be held on October 30. Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the process of selection of candidates will begin soon, as he expressed confidence about the BJP winning both the seats.
He said in the recently held BJP core committee meeting, discussions took place on appointing observers to both the segments and state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel would take a call on it.
Senior leader Udasi, who had represented Hangal, was a six time MLA, and under his leadership, there was a lot of developmental work in the constituency, while BJP had won Sindgi thrice before losing it to late Manguli of JD(S) in 2018, he pointed out.
To a question about this being the first election under his leadership as the Chief Minister, Bommai said, "All leaders have faced by-election. We will face it under the leadership of the party."
Incidentally ex-Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa had said this will be the litmus test for the party ahead of the Assembly Elections in 2023. This will be also the first time that the BJP in Karnataka will contest elections without Yediyurappa as its most prominent leader.