New Delhi, Sep 29 (IANS): The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Tuesday announced by-elections to 56 assembly seats and one Lok Sabha seat in Bihar in the first week of November.

By-elections to 56 assembly seats, except Manipur, across 11 states, will be held on November 3 and the Lok Sabha election will be held on November 7. The counting will be held on November 10 and the entire election election process will be completed before November 12, the Commission said.

The maximum number of seats going to polls is from Madhya Pradesh as these fell vacant due to Jyotiraditya Scindia switching camps from the Congress to the Bharatiya Janata Party along with his supporters.

A total of 28 Assembly seats are vacant in Madhya Pradesh, eight in Gujarat, seven in Uttar Pradesh, two each in Jharkhand, Karnataka, Manipur, Nagaland, Odisha; and one each in Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Telangana.

Besides, one Parliamentary constituency in Bihar and two assembly seats from Manipur go to polls on November 7. The counting of votes will be held on November 10.

"After taking into consideration various factors like weather conditions, movement of forces, pandemic etc, the commission has decided to hold by-elections," a note from the Election Commission said.

The commission has also decided not to hold by-elections to seven constituencies in four states. Elections on these seats will be held early next year.