The Election Commission on Tuesday clarified that there was no need to hold bye-elections to five vacant seats in Lok Sabha from Andhra Pradesh as they were vacated with less than one year left in the tenure of the Lower House, PTI reported.

On October 6, the Election Commission had announced that bye-elections in Karnataka’s Shimoga, Bellary and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies, and Ramanagaram and Jankhadi Assembly seats will be held on November 3. The poll panel on Tuesday said there had been media reports pointing out that it had not given bye-election dates for Andhra Pradesh’s five vacant Lok Sabha seats.

Five YSR Congress Party MPs – V Vara Prasad Rao, YV Subba Reddy, PV Midhun Reddy, YS Avinash Reddy, and Mekapati Rajamohan Reddy – had quit in April to protest against the Centre’s failure to provide special category status to Andhra Pradesh. However, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan accepted their resignations only on June 20. The current Lok Sabha term will end on June 3, 2019.

Citing the Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Election Commission said the casual vacancies in Parliament and state legislatures must be filled through bye-elections within six months from the date of vacancy, provided that remainder of the Lok Sabha still has one year or more left in its term.

“In this connection, it is to be noted that vacancies from Bellary, Shimoga and Mandya of Karnataka occurred on May 18 and May 21, whereas vacancies from the five parliamentary constituencies from Andhra Pradesh have occurred on June 20, 2018,” the Election Commission said.