The Election Commission of India on Wednesday issued dates for bypolls in various Lok Sabha and Assembly constituencies across the country but the mention of Wayanad was missing. The EC, when asked, said there is no hurry for the same as the trial court has given a month’s time.
Last week, the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in Kerala was declared vacant after MP Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from Parliament as he was sentenced to a two-year jail term in a criminal defamation case.
On Wednesday, the EC issued dates for assembly elections in Karnataka and along with that it also issued the schedule for bye-election for Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency in Punjab and one assembly each in Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya.
When asked about Wayanad, Rajiv Kumar, the Chief Election Commissioner of India (CEC), said there is no hurry for this as the seat fell vacant on March 23, 2023.
The CEC cited the Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 that mandates the Election Commission to fill the casual vacancies in the Houses of Parliament and State Legislatures through bye-elections within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy, provided that the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is one year or more.
“The vacancy has occurred and been reported on March 23, 2023 to us. So, we have six months. Also, the second provision says that if the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is less than one year then elections will not be held. In this case, it is more than one year,” the CEC said, adding that the elections will be held for the seat.
He further said the trial court has given 30 days’ time for a judicial remedy.
“And therefore there is no hurry to do it before exhausting that particular remedy. We will take a call after that,” the CEC said while addressing the media.
He also said with the announcement of by-polls, they have cleared all the vacancies till February 2023.
The Lok Sabha secretariat issued the notification disqualifying Rahul Gandhi as a member of the Lower House of Parliament following his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case.
He won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Wayanad.
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