Election Commission announces Karnataka Legislative Council bypoll to be held on March 15

The Karnataka Legislative Council seat fell vacant due to the death of Council deputy speaker SL Dharmegowda.

Bengaluru, First Published Feb 18, 2021, 6:04 PM IST | Last Updated Feb 18, 2021, 6:04 PM IST

The Election Commission has announced that the by-election to the Karnataka Legislative Council would be held on March 15 for one seat.

The bypoll to the Karnataka Legislative Council seat fell vacant due to the death of Council deputy speaker SL Dharmegowda.

According to the ECI order, notification for the bypoll will be issued on February 25 and the last date of filing nominations is March 4. The last date for withdrawal is March 8.

The election would be held on March 15 from 9am to 4pm, with MLAs voting. Counting of the votes would be done by 5pm on March 15 and the bye-election to the Legislative Council would be completed by March 18.

The Election Commission has also issued a few guidelines to be followed during the election process such as masks should be worn by everyone during any election related activity and also that thermal scanning of all the persons should be carried out. Sanitizers should be made available at all locations, at the entry of the hall or rooms which are being used for election purposes.

Dharmegowda, the 64-year-old JD(S) MLC, was found dead on a rail track in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka in the early hours of December 29, with police sources claiming he died by suicide. The late leader was at the centre of high drama in the legislative council on December 15, which saw BJP-JD(S) and Congress members hurling abuses and pushing each other over a row pertaining to a no-confidence motion against then Chairman K Pratapachandra Shetty.

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