The Election Commission on Monday postponed the bye-polls for Anantnag seat and they will now be held on May 25, reported ANI. The bye-elections were initially scheduled for April 12.

The Election Commission’s decision came after a school, which was designated as a polling station, was set on fire in Shopian. The state’s ruling People’s Democratic Party had asked the authorities concerned to postpone the polling, after violence during the Srinagar bye-elections claimed eight lives on Sunday. The PDP has fielded Mufti’s brother Tassaduq Mufti from Anantnag.

Anantnag has always been a bastion for the PDP. The bye-elections to the Anantnag Lok Sabha were necessitated after Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti won the Assembly bye-polls in June last year and gave up her Lok Sabha seat. The Assembly seat had fallen vacant after former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed died in January last year.