Putting to rest speculation on when the Election Commission will announce a byelection in Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency in the light of disqualification of Rahul Gandhi who represented the seat from the Lok Sabha, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar on Wednesday said the poll body will wait for the leader to exhaust the 30 days offered to him by the trial court to seek legal remedy.
As the Commission held a press conference to announce the schedule for the Assembly elections in Karnataka, there was immense interest in whether the EC would go ahead and announce bypolls in Wayanad. The Lok Sabha seat had fallen vacant on March 23 upon the Lok Sabha Secretariat notifying disqualification of of the former Congress president from the lower house after he was convicted by a district court in Surat for criminal defamation and sentenced him to two years imprisonment.
However, the Commission announced by-polls in Jalandhar Lok Sabha constituency and four Assembly seats, keeping silent on Wayanad. When a question was put to Kumar on why byelections were not announced in Wayanad, he said the Commission had taken a decision on seats that had fallen vacant till February. As regards Wayanad, he pointed out that the trial court had given 30 days time to Rahul to seek judicial remedy. “Therefore, we are in no hurry to do it (announce by-polls) before exhausting that remedy offered by the honorable trial court. We will take a call after that,” he said.
Section 151 of the Representation of Peoples Act mandates the Election Commission to fill the casual vacancies in the Houses of Parliament and State Legislatures through byelections within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy. It also provides that by-elections can be announced only if the remainder of the term is more than one year.
Kumar said a vacancy has occurred in Wayanad and it was reported to the Commission on March 23. Indicating that it is a fit case for a byelection, he said the remaining term is more than one year. “We have six months' time to carry out the election,” he said.
Pointers to how the EC would deal with Wayanad were available in the recent case of Lakshadweep Lok Sabha constituency, where the sitting legislator was convicted and disqualified, but whose conviction was then stayed.
The Commission had on January 18 announced a byelection to Lakshadweep a week after Mohammed Faizal of the Nationalist Congress Party was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP following his conviction in an attempt to murder case. The poll date was February 27. However, Faizal secured a stay on his conviction from the Kerala High Court on January 25. In the light of the high court staying Faizal's conviction, the EC had to withdraw the poll declaration.
In November last year, the Supreme Court had asked the EC to defer issuing a gazette notification for by-election in Rampur after conviction of Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan and subsequent disqualification as a legislator in the Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha. Khan was found guilty in a hate speech case dating back to 2019.
