NEW DELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has announced the dates for by-elections in Kerala and West Bengal for two Rajya Sabha seats. Bypolls for one Legislative Council seat in Maharashtra, three seats in Andhra Pradesh, and six seats in Telangana have also been announced by the ECI.

The Commission, having re-assessed the situation in the State of Kerala and after taking into account all relevant facts, has now decided to conduct the above-mentioned two by-elections to the Council of States from Kerala and West Bengal, the EC said in a statement. After the resignations of Jose K. Mani from Kerala on January 11 and TMC MP Arpita Ghosh from West Bengal on September 15, the seats up for bypolls became vacant.

In Kerala, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF), which has 99 legislators to the opposition United Democratic Front's (UDF's), 41 is expected to easily win the Rajya Sabha seat. The Kerala Congress (M) is likely to get the seat, but Jose K. Mani, who resigned from the Rajya Sabha to run in the assembly elections and lost in his home turf Pala, is unlikely to run because he is focused on his assembly constituency, which was held by his father late K.M. Mani for a record fifty years.

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