Jaipur, Sep 28 (PTI) Voting for the bypolls to Rajasthan"s Dhariyavad and Vallabhnagar Assembly seats will be held on October 30. The Election Commission (EC) announced the schedule for the bypolls on Tuesday. For the first time in these elections, the silence period has been increased from 48 hours to 72 hours. The election notification for both the seats will be issued on October 1. Nominations can be filed till October 8. Polling will be held on October 30, while the counting of votes will be taken up on November 2. Election was necessitated on the seats after Congress MLA from Vallabhnagar Gajendra Singh Shaktawat died due to COVID-19 on January 20 and BJP legislator from Dhariyavad Gautam Lal Meena died of the infection on May 19. A total of 5.09 lakh voters will be eligible to exercise their franchise in both the assemblies, out of whom 2.57 lakh are male voters and 2.52 lakh are female voters. In a statement, Chief Electoral Officer Praveen Gupta said that for the first time in these elections, the silence period has been increased from 48 hours to 72 hours. Campaigning in these by-elections will stop 72 hours before voting, he added. He informed that 781 polling stations have been set up in both the assemblies. Of these, 396 polling stations have been set up in Dhariyavad and 385 in Vallabhnagar. The Chief Electoral Officer also held a meeting with the representatives of recognised political parties and appealed for the necessary cooperation during the election. He also made the parties aware of the guidelines issued by the commission. He said that in view of the coronavirus pandemic, the general assembly or procession before and after filing of nomination papers will be prohibited. Only three vehicles will be allowed at the time of filing of nomination papers. He said that any type of road show and rally would not be allowed. Even during door-to-door campaign, only five persons, including the candidate, will be allowed. Only 50 people will be allowed in the street corner meetings. Representatives and officials of political parties were present during the meeting. The ruling Congress currently has 106 MLAs in the 200-member Rajasthan Assembly, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 71, the Rashtriya Loktantrik Party (RLP) three, the CPI(M) and the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP) two each and 13 independents. Two seats are vacant. Earlier, bypolls were held for the Sahada, Sujangarh and Rajsamand Assembly seats in the state, with the Congress winning two of those and the BJP one. The EC announced in New Delhi on Tuesday that bypolls to three Lok Sabha seats and 30 Assembly seats in different states will be held on October 30. PTI AG SMN SMN