Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru 

Bengaluru, Sep 27: The election commission (EC) has sent a notification relating to the by-polls for15 assembly constituenciesin the state. The notification says that the by-polls are scheduled to be held on December 5.

The votes will be counted on December 9.  

The EC had earlier scheduled the polling for the bye-elections in the 15 constituencies on October 21 and the counting on October 24. The poll-panel on Thursday agreed before the Supreme Court to defer the polling, so that the apex court can take a final decision on the pleas by the legislators, whom the former Speaker, K R Ramesh Kumar, had stripped of membership and debarred to be member again during the current term of the assembly.  

The EC now decided to restart filing of nominations on November 11. It set November 18 as the last date for filing nominations. The nominations will be scrutinized on November 19 while the last date for withdrawal of nominations will be on November 21. 

The EC clarified that the nominations already filed between September 23 and September 28 would also be taken up for scrutiny on November 19 along with the new nominations filed between November 11 and November 18. 

The vacancies were created when the 17 legislators of the Congress and JD(S) resigned, resulting in the collapse of H D Kumaraswamy's government and the return of the BJP to power with B S Yediyurappa as chief minister in July.