The Nilambur bypoll will be held on June 19. The Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the schedule of byelections in five assembly constituencies of Gujarat, Kerala, Punjab and West Bengal on Sunday. The Gazette notification will be issued on Monday. 

The bypoll was necessitated by the resignation of P V Anvar. In 2024, Anvar, who won as an LDF-backed independent candidate from Nilambur in the 2021 assembly elections, had a major fallout with the CPM and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan. He came up with a series of allegations against top IPS officials, including M R Ajithkumar, Sujith Das, and Pinarayi's political secretary, P K Sasi, and filed complaints with the Chief Minister.

Later, he openly expressed dissatisfaction over the manner in which the Chief Minister handled his complaints. In January, he resigned as Nilambur MLA, shortly after joining the Trinamool Congress.

The UDF has already begun groundwork ahead of the bypoll in Nilambur. UDF and LDF retained their seats respectively in Palakkad and Chelakkara bypolls held in 2024. UDF also won the Thrikkakkara bypoll held in 2022, in which Uma Thomas won with a record majority. In 2019, Kerala witnessed bypolls in Pala, Manjeshwar, Ernakulam, Vattiyoorkavu, Konni and Aroor.

On June 19, bypolls will also be held in Kadi (Gujarat), Visavadar (Gujarat), Ludhiana West (Punjab), and Kaliganj (West Bengal) constituencies.

Important dates
Issue of gazette notification: May 26
Last date for submitting nominations: June 2
Scrutiny of nominations: June 3
Last date to withdraw candidatures: June 5
Date of poll: June 19
Counting: June 23
Date before which the election shall be completed: June 25