By-elections to one Lok Sabha, two Assembly seats in Karnataka notified

Bengaluru: The Election Commission notified by-elections to one Lok Sabha seat and two Assembly seats in Karnataka on April 17 to fill the vacancies, an official said on Tuesday.

"By-elections will be held on April 17 for the Belgaum Lok Sabha constituency in the north-west region and Basavakalyan and Mask (ST) assembly seats in Bidar and Raichur districts in the northern region," a poll official said.

Vacancy for the Belgaum seat was caused by the Covid death of Union Minister of State for Railways Suresh Angadi on September 23, 2020. He was a four-time BJP member from the high-profile constituency.

Similarly, vacancy for the Basavakalyan seat was caused by the Covid death of opposition Congress legislator B. Narayan Rao on September 24, 2020 at a private hospital in Bengaluru.

The Maski reserved seat fell vacant after Congress rebel MLA Pratap Gowda Patil resigned in July 2019 and defected to the ruling BJP.

The ruling BJP is yet to name its candidates for the three seats though Patil is tipped to re-contest from Maski.

Though Congress is also yet to name its candidate for the Belgaum seat, it has nominated Mallamma, widow of Rao for Basavakalyan and Basavanagoud R. Turvihal for Maski.

Turvihal, who lost to Patil in the May 2018 assembly elections, joined Congress from BJP recently to contest the by-poll against the former.

In the 225-member state Assembly, BJP has 118, Congress (67), Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) (32), Independents (2), BSP (1), speaker (1), nominated (1) and vacant (3).

In the 15 assembly by-elections held on December 5, 2019, BJP won 12, Congress (2) and an independent (1).

In the twin by-polls held in Bengaluru's RR Nagar and Sira in Tumakur district on November 2020 amid the Covid pandemic, the BJP wrested both seats from the Congress and JD-S respectively.

The returning officers received four nominations for the Belgaum contest, one for Basavakalyan and nil for Maski on the first day after the by-polls were notified.

As per the schedule, last date of nominations is on March 30, scrutiny on March 31 and last date for withdrawal of nominations on March 3.

Vote count for the three seats is on May 2.

By-election to the Sindgi assembly seat in Vijayapura district is yet to be announced though it fell vacant due to the death of its sitting JD-S member M.C. Managuli due to Covid on January 28 at a private hospital in Bengaluru.

Managuli, 85, was a cabinet minister in the 14-month-old JD-S Congress coalition government, which fell on July 23, 2019 after its Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy lost the trust vote in the state legislative assembly following the resignation of 17 legislators of both parties in the same month (July 2019).

Managuli's son Ashok, who joined Congress recently, will be its candidate in the by-election when held.