The Commission has decided to hold following bye-elections to fill vacancies in one (1) Parliamentary Constituency of Bihar and fifty six Assembly Constituencies in Legislative Assemblies of various States as per details below:

After taking into consideration various factors like local festivals, weather conditions, movement of forces, pandemic etc., the Commission has decided to hold bye-elections to fill these vacancies as per the programme mentioned as under:

1. ELECTORAL ROLL

The Electoral Rolls for the aforesaid Parliamentary and Assembly Constituencies w.r.t 01.01.2020 as the qualifying date has been finally published.   

2. ELECTRONIC VOTING MACHINES (EVMs) and VVPATs

            Adequate numbers of EVMs and VVPATs have been made available for the aforementioned bye-elections.

3. IDENTIFICATION OF VOTERS

  In continuance of the existing practice, the voter's identification shall be mandatory in the aforementioned elections at the time of poll. Electoral Photo Identity cards (EPIC) shall be the main document of identification of a voter. However, in order to ensure that no voter is deprived of his/her franchise, if his/her name figures in the electoral rolls, following alternate identity documents are also prescribed:

1. Aadhar Card
2. MNREGA Job Card
3. PAN Card
4. Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office.
5. Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour
6. Driving License
7. Passport
8. Service Identity Cards with photograph issued to employees by
9. Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR
10. Pension document with photograph
11. Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs and

4. MODEL CODE OF CONDUCT

            Model code of conduct shall come into force with immediate effect in the district(s) in which the whole or any part of the Assembly constituency going for election is included, subject to partial modification as issued vide Commission’ s instruction No. 437/6/1NST/2016-CCS, dated 29^th June, 2017 (available on the commission's website). The Model code of conduct shall be applicable to all candidates, political parties and the state Government concerned. Model code of conduct shall be applicable to the Union Government also.

All instructions concerning publicity of criminal antecedents by the concerned candidates and the related political parties, who select them, as directed vide letter no. 3/4/2020/SDR/Vol.III dated 6 March 2020 and letter no. 3/4/2019/SDR/Vol.IV dated 16 September 2020 shall be followed in these elections.

Other instructions including postal ballot facilities to senior citizen(above 80 years of age) and PwD electors; election expenditure management etc. shall be applicable to the aforementioned Bye-elections.

5. BROAD GUIDELINES TO BE FOLLOWED DURING THE CONDUCT OF BYE-ELECTIONS DURING COVID-19

In view of spread of COVID-19, the Commission on 21^st August, 2020 has issued broad guidelines, which is to be followed strictly during the conduct of election, which is annexed here with as Annexure-1 which is also available on Commission’s website. 

  Click here to see the COVID guidelines.                                                                                                                            

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SBS/MR/AC