New Delhi: In a major relief for the 15 disqualified MLAs from Karnataka, the Election Commission (EC) Thursday told the Supreme Court that it will defer the bypolls in their assembly constituencies until the court decides on their petitions.
“The EC has always maintained that disqualification should not deprive an elected member from contesting elections… In this case too, we have maintained the same thing,” said an EC official on the condition of anonymity.
“By delaying the election, the EC has just ensured that there is no scope of confusion until the SC decides the case.”
The EC had Monday told the Supreme Court that the Speaker’s order disqualifying the MLAs from the assembly cannot deprive them of their right to contest the polls. It had, however, also told the court that the elections in the assembly seats should not be stayed.
The EC had earlier announced that the 15 assembly constituencies in Karnataka will vote along with other poll-bound states on 21 October, and the votes would be counted on 24 October. With the EC setting the last date for filing nominations as 30 September, the situation for the disqualified MLAs had become extremely precarious.
The Supreme Court has now listed the matter for 22 October, a day after voting in the constituencies. The SC is examining the pleas of the MLAs seeking a stay on their disqualification that has prevented them from contesting the by-elections.
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Rebels who brought down a government
As reported by ThePrint earlier, the 15 MLAs — who had moved the Supreme Court after they were disqualified by then Karnataka Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar for anti-party activities — wanted the court to delay the elections until the matter was decided.
“We should be able to reach out to the EC to seek a delay in holding elections,” a senior officer in Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s government who spoke on the condition of anonymity had told ThePrint.
The 15 MLAs were part of a group of 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 resignations 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 of the 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 the 208-seat assembly, two more than the 104-mark. The majority mark will touch 112 after the elections. As such, the BJP will have to win in at least six of the 15 constituencies.
A grey area
The EC has in the past maintained that disqualification upon defection means disqualification from the current elected office and not from contesting future elections.
Earlier this week, however, the Karnataka state election commissioner, Sanjeev Kumar, said the disqualified MLAs will not be allowed to contest in the bypolls as the Speaker’s order is in force.
But with the EC now having delayed the elections until the court delivers its verdict in the case, the MLAs would no longer be bound by the Speaker’s order when the polls are finally held.
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