Bypoll for Uttarakhand's Kedarnath seat to be held on Nov 20

The seat fell vacant following the death of MLA Shaila Rawat in July.

The bypoll for the Kedarnath Assembly seat in Uttarakhand will be held on November 20, the Election Commission of India announced on Tuesday.

The seat fell vacant following the death of MLA Shaila Rawat in July. Rawat won the seat on a BJP ticket in the 2022 assembly polls and had previously represented the seat in 2012 as a Congress MLA. She lost in 2017 but regained it in 2022. The Kedarnath seat, located in Rudraprayag district, is part of the Pauri Garhwal Lok Sabha constituency, which is currently held by the BJP.

According to Additional Chief Election Officer Vijay Kumar Jogdande, the notification for the bypoll will be issued on October 22, with October 29 as the last date for filing nominations. Scrutiny of nominations will take place on October 30, and November 4 is the last date for withdrawal, Jogdande said. Counting will be held on November 23. The model code of conduct is now in effect in the district and will remain in force until November 25, the officer added.

Welcoming the announcement of the bypoll date, Pradesh BJP president and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt expressed confidence that the party will replicate its “wonderful” poll performances in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir in Kedarnath. “As in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, here too, people are going to deflate the balloon of Congress’ lies,” he said. He claimed that the BJP will win the seat with a record number of votes based on the historic work done in the constituency by the double-engine government. Being a cadre-based party, BJP workers are always in the midst of the people in the constituency, he added. The party is fully prepared for the polls, with its booth and Panna committees, constituted during the Lok Sabha polls, already active.