Ballia bypolls put off due to floods

The Election Commission on Monday postponed byelections for Ballia parliamentary constituency scheduled to be held on August 29 due to the ongoing flood situation in eastern Uttar Pradesh. A fresh schedule will be announced later. The Commission had on July 24 announced byelections to fill up a number of vacancies in the Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies.

The decision to postpone the bypolls was taken after the Chief Electoral Officer of Uttar Pradesh requested the Commission to consider postponing the byelection in view of the already existing flood situation in eastern UP and likely water logging during the later half of August in a considerable number of polling stations areas falling within Ballia Parliamentary Constituency. The EC has also decided to change the date of poll for all the three Assembly Constituencies in UP namely Suar Tanda, Farrukhabad and Gunnaur.