Bypolls to Nanguneri, Vikravandi on October 21

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu will see another mini-round of by-elections to the state Legislative Assembly, with the Election Commission of India (ECI) announcing the bypolls from Nanguneri and Vikravandi on October 21, two constituencies which fell vacant sometime back.

This is part of the all-India schedule for 64 Assembly by-polls across the country. One seat in Puducherry, Kamaraj Nagar, will also go to polls on that day, the EC said.

The nominations for these constituencies open on Monday, September 23, with the last date of filing nominations being September 30.

Scrutiny of nominations will be taken up on October 1, last date for withdrawal of nominations is October 3. Counting of votes will be taken up on October 24, the EC announced.

The Nanguneri Assembly seat fell vacant following the Congress MLA from there, H. Vasanth Kumar subsequently elected to the Lok Sabha from Kanyakumari constituency in May last, while the Vikravandi seat fell vacant after the sitting DMK MLA, Radhamani had passed away. V. Vaithyalingam in Puducherry getting elected to the Lok Sabha resulted in his Assembly segment there falling vacant.

The model code of conduct will be applicable to these constituency areas from Saturday itself.

The latest party-wise position in the Tamil Nadu Assembly is as follows: AIADMK – 122 MLAs’, DMK- 100, Indian National Congress-7, IUML-1, Independent (TTV Dhinakaran)-1, Nominated member-1, Speaker – 1. The AIADMK legislature party group include couple of MLAs’ who contested on its ‘Two Leaves’ symbol in the 2016 Assembly elections.