New Delhi: The Election Commission’s decision to defer the bypolls in Karnataka until after the Supreme Court verdict on 17 rebel MLAs was driven by advice from its counsel, and meant to avoid a second round of by-elections, ThePrint has learnt.
The poll panel informed the Supreme Court Thursday that the bypolls to 15 assembly seats in Karnataka, scheduled for 21 October, will be postponed until the court takes a call on petitions filed by 17 MLAs against their disqualification by the former speaker.
They were disqualified after they rebelled against the erstwhile Congress-JD(S) government. The H.D. Kumaraswamy-led administration eventually collapsed and set the stage for the BJP to assume the state’s reins.
The EC’s stand marked a U-turn since Monday, when the poll panel told the court that the bypolls should not be stayed.
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Advice conveyed in letter
The EC has been of the view that the MLAs, who were disqualified by former Karnataka Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar for anti-party activities, should not be barred from contesting elections since it believes that disqualification on account of defection only means disqualification from the current office, and not from fighting future elections.
However, disqualification can also render legislators barred from contesting elections until the House completes its term, which in Karnataka’s case will be in 2023.
With the Supreme Court’s decision unlikely by 21 October, the EC was advised by its counsel, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, to delay the bypolls in Karnataka.
This was meant to ensure that if the Supreme Court rejects the plea of the disqualified MLAs, the EC does not have to conduct elections in these seats again.
Dwivedi conveyed the advice to Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora in a letter dated 26 September.
“Since the EC is of the view that the MLAs should not be barred from fighting elections, and the SC would not have been able to give the final judgment before the bypoll date, it was felt that the elections should be postponed,” said a senior EC official.
As reported by ThePrint earlier, the disqualified MLAs wanted the court to delay the elections until the matter was decided.
The 15 MLAs were among 18 legislators who brought down the H.D. Kumaraswamy-led Congress-JD(S) alliance government two months ago. While one was an Independent, the other 17 resigned from the assembly en masse. Their mass resignation prompted then speaker Kumar to disqualify all of them.
Of the bypolls to be held in 17 seats, elections have not been announced in two constituencies — Maski and R.R. Nagar — as petitions regarding these seats have been pending in the Karnataka High Court since the 2018 assembly polls.
The EC decision should provide the ruling BJP a boost ahead of the bypolls. At present, it has a wafer-thin majority of 106 in a 208-seat assembly, two more than the 104 halfway mark.
The majority mark will touch 113 after the elections, since the Karnataka assembly has 224 elected MLAs at full strength. As such, the BJP will have to win in at least six of the 15 constituencies.
Also read: The 4 scenarios for rebel Karnataka MLAs who are waiting for SC ruling on disqualification