By Shishir Prashant 
PrashantNews
The ruling BJP and Congress are facing an election challenge in Uttarakhand as the Election Commission on Tuesday announced that the Kedarnath assembly bypoll will be held on Nov 20 and the counting of votes will begin on Nov 23.
Giving details, additional Chief Electoral Officer Dr Vijay Kumar Jogdande said the notification for the byelection will be issued on Oct 22. The last date of filing of nomination papers will be Oct 29. The scrutiny will be held next day.
The withdrawal of nominations can be done till Nov 4.
Jogdande said with the announcement of the dates for byelection, the election code of conduct has come into effect in the Rudraprayag district from Tuesday which will continue till Nov 25.
After its ignominious white wash in the Lok Sabha elections for the third time consecutively, the Congress showed signs of recovery when it won both Badrinath and Manglaur seats in the bypolls in July. Congress is exuding confidence that it would win the Kedarnath byelection also this time.
On the other hand, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has announced a number of new schemes that would benefit the Kedarnath people. He has also warned his opponents that his government would not tolerate love jihad, spit (thuk) jihad and land jihad in the state. The people of Kedarnath will prefer development and give BJP a strong mandate in the byelection, Dhami said.