The Election Commission of India (EC) on September 24 announced that bypoll to the Satara Lok Sabha seat will be held on October 21.
The decision to hold the bypoll was taken after the Bombay High Court rolled out its verdict on an election petition on Satara Lok Sabha elections.
Voting will happen along with the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election. The counting will also take place on October 24 when assembly election votes will be counted. This means that the constituency will go to polls and have its votes counted along with the 288 seats in the Maharashtra Assembly; 90 seats in Haryana; and the 64 by-polls for various State Assemblies, including those in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.
In a statement, the Commission said it has decided to use electronic voting machines (EVM) and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trails (VVPAT) in all the polling stations in Satara.
The by-poll was necessitated after Nationalist Congress Party leader and the sitting MP resigned within months of being elected and joined the BJP.
Nationalist Congress Party MP from Satara Udayanraje Bhonsle, a descendant of the Maratha ruler Shivaji, had submitted his resignation to Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and then joined the BJP here in the presence of party president and Home Minister Amit Shah, working president J.P. Nadda and Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Septmeber 14.
The ECI said the notification for the by-poll would be issued on September 27. The last date for nominations would be October 4 and the last date for withdrawal of candidature would be October 7.