Shillong, July 23: The Election Commission on Monday announced the schedule for the bye election to South Tura Assembly constituency in Meghalaya, but the Commission left everyone surprise as Ranikor Assembly seat will not go to bypoll together with South Tura.

According to the schedule, polling will be held on August 23 and counting of votes will take place on August 27.

The Commission said that the model code of conduct shall come into force with immediate effect in the (districts) in which the whole or any part of the Assembly constituency going for bye election is included subject to partial modification.

The Commission said that it decided to hold the bye election to fill this vacancy after taking into consideration various factors like local festivals, electoral rolls, weather conditions.

The date for issuing of notification is July 30, which is also the day when filing of nominations will begin for the bypoll and the last date for filing of nominations is August 6.

Scrutiny of nominations will be held on August 7 and the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is August 9. The election process should be completed by August 29.

Chief Minister, Conrad Kongkal Sangma who is the Lok Sabha MP from Tura parliamentary seat, will contest the bye election to South Tura Assembly seat, which has remained vacant after his sister, Agatha Kongkal Sangma quit as MLA of the constituency.

Conrad, who is also the national president of the National People’s Party (NPP) has to get elected as MLA to continue as Chief Minister of Meghalaya. The NPP is leading the six-party coalition Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government under the Chief Ministership of Conrad.

If elected as MLA of South Tura, Conrad has to quit as MP. But the Election Commission might avoid a bye election to the Tura Parliamentary.

Sources said that according to rulebook, any parliamentary seat that goes vacant when there is less than a year left for the general elections, is kept waiting for the next Lok Sabha polls.

The current Lok Sabha held its first sitting on June 4, 2014, and any vacancy that may arise in a Lok Sabha seat after June 3, 2018 will not be considered for a bypoll.

“But any Lok Sabha seat that may have gone vacant before June 3, 2018, such seat will have to be filled up through a bye election,” sources said.

This means that Tura Lok Sabha seat will not go to bypoll even if the seat remains vacant, but has to wait for the next Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

Meanwhile the decision of the Election Commission to conduct the bye election only in South Tura came as a surprise since Ranikor Assembly constituency will not go to the bypoll together with South Tura.

The Ranikor seat is remaining vacant after senior Congress legislator, Martin M. Danggo resigned as MLA on June 21, after the MDA government decided to make Ranikor a full-fledged Civil Sub Division.