The Election Commission on Monday rescheduled bye-elections in 14 Assembly constituencies in Kerala, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh from November 13 to November 20 in view of “large-scale social, cultural and religious engagements”.

The date on which the results will be declared – November 23 – remains unchanged.

Last month, the poll panel fixed the bye-elections in 48 Assembly constituencies and two Lok Sabha seats across 15 states on November 13. Polling for a majority of these Assembly seats will be held because the sitting MLAs contested and won the recent Lok Sabha elections.

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In a statement on Monday, the poll panel said that it had received representations on a change of date from several political parties, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Congress, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, and certain social organisations.

The representations demanded that the dates be changed because of “social, cultural and religious engagements on that day [November 13], which may cause inconvenience to large number of people, give rise to various logistic issues and may lead to reduced voters participating during the poll,” it added.

The 14 Assembly constituencies where polling will now be held on November 20 include Palakkad in Kerala, and Dera Baba Nanak, Chabbewal, Gidderbaha, and Barnala in Punjab, the Election Commission said.

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In Uttar Pradesh, polling has been rescheduled in Khair, Meerapur, Kundarki, Ghaziabad, Karhal, Sishamau, Phulpur, Katehari and Majhawan.

Apart from the bye-elections, polling for the 288-member Maharashtra Assembly will take place in a single phase on November 20. Voting for the Jharkhand Assembly polls will also be held in two phases on November 13 and November 20.

The counting of votes for both the Jharkhand and Maharashtra elections will also take place on November 23.