Bypolls: The Election Commission has res rescheduled assembly bypolls in three states i.e. - Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab. The EC said that elections will now be held on November 20 instead of earlier scheduled November 20. According to the Election Commission, the decision has been taken considering the cultural and religious engagements on that day.

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Bypolls are scheduled to be held in a total of fourteen Assembly seats - nine in Uttar Pradesh, four in Punjab and one in Kerala. The date of counting and completion of the poll of these Assembly constituencies remain unchanged i.e. November 23 and 25, respectively. 

Several national and state-level political parties had urged the poll body to reschedule the polls in view of various festivals, saying that it could impact voter turnout.

"Subsequently, representations have been received in the Commission from various recognised National and State political parties (including BJP, INC, BSP, RLD) and some social organisations for change of date of poll in some Assembly Constituencies having bye elections on 13th November 2024, considering large scale social, cultural and religious engagements on that day which may cause inconvenience to large number of people, give rise to various logistic issues and may lead to reduced voters participation during the poll," the EC said.

According to the Congress, a significant portion of the electorate in the Palakkad assembly seat in Kerala will celebrate the festival of Kalpathi Rastholsavam from November 13 to 15.

In Punjab, the party had said, the 555th Prakash Parv of Sri Guru Nanak Dev will be celebrated on November 15 and an 'akhand path' will be organised from November 13 onwards.

BJP, BSP and RLD had said that in Uttar Pradesh, people travel for three to four days ahead of Kartik Purnima, which will be celebrated on November 15.
 
With agency inputs