New Delhi: The Election Commission on Saturday announced that byelections for five constituencies in Kerala will be held on October 21.
The counting of votes will take place on October 24, Chief Election Commissioner of India Sunil Arora announced.
The five constituencies to vote in the Kerala byelections are Vattiyoorkaavu, Konni, Aroor, Ernakulam and Manjeshwaram.
Vattiyoorkavu, Aroor, Ernakulam and Konni seats had become vacant as the MLAs representing them resigned after they won the Lok Sabha elections in late May.
The Manjeswaram assembly seat fell vacant as PB Abdul Razak, the IUML MLA who represented it, died last October.
With the announcement of the election schedule, a model code of conduct has come into effect in these constituencies.
Three Congress MLAs who represented Vattiyoorkavu, Ernakulam and Konni assembly constituencies are K Muraleedharan, Hibi Eden and Adoor Prakash respectively. Muraleedharan is now the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Vadakara Lok Sabha constituency.
Hibi and Adoor Prakash are MPs of Ernakulam and Attingal Lok Sabha seats respectively. A.M. Ariff of CPM had won from Aroor in the 2016 assembly elections. Ariff currently represents the Alappuzha Lok Sabha constituency.
The issue of notification for the election will come on September 27 and the last day for submitting the nomination is October 4.
The byelections will take place alongside the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Gujarat.