Bypolls to four vacant Lok Sabha seats unlikely: Sources

Bypolls to four vacant Lok Sabha seats, including Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh, are unlikely to be held, sources said on Monday. The Election Commission and the Legislative Department in the Union Law Ministry are learnt to be in touch with each other on the issue, they said.

According to statutory provisions, the Legislative Department has to concur with the EC on delaying or not holding an election or a by-election.

The four vacant Lok Sabha seats are Chandrapur and Pune in Maharashtra, Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh and Ambala in Haryana.


Electoral law stipulates that a bypoll has to be held within six months of a seat falling vacant. But the poll panel, based on certain facts, can decide either not to hold or postpone the electoral exercise.

Sources aware of the dialogue between the EC and the ministry said that if the bypolls are held, the newly elected MPs will get very little time as public representatives as the next Lok Sabha polls will be announced early 2024.

In 2014 and 2019, Lok Sabha polls were announced in March.

There were some other legal positions based on which the EC had recently approached the ministry seeking its concurrence for not holding the bypolls, the sources said.

While three Lok Sabha seats were vacated due to the demise of sitting members, one fell vacant due to the disqualification of a member following his conviction in a criminal case.

Congress MP Suresh Dhanorkar from Chandrapur in Maharashtra had died in May, while BJP member Girish Bapat (Pune) passed away in March.

BSP MP from Ghazipur Afzal Ansari was disqualified in May. Former Union minister Rattan Lal Kataria (Ambala) passed away in March.