Two days after the Jharkhand BJP president Babulal Marandi wrote to the governor terming the vacation of Gandey Assembly seat as a “political turmoil manoeuvred at the hands of chief minister”, a delegation of ruling JMM approached state chief electoral officer seeking early bypoll to the vacant Assembly seat.

A delegation of the JMM on Friday submitted a memorandum to Jharkhand chief electoral officer K. Ravikumar requesting early by-elections in the Gandey Assembly seat in Giridih.

In the memorandum, the delegation, which comprised party central general secretaries Supriyo Bhattacharya and Vinod Pandey and MLAs Nalin Soren and Bhusan Tirkey among others, informed about the sudden resignation of the sitting Gandey MLA from JMM, Sarfaraz Ahmed, on December 31.

It also informed that the first session of the fifth Jharkhand Assembly was convened on January 6, 2020.

“According to Article 172 of the Constitution of India, the tenure of the fifth Jharkhand Legislative Assembly is till January 5, 2025. According to Section 15A of the People’s Representation Act 1951, there is a provision that if the tenure of the Assembly is more than one year (which is the condition at the moment), by-elections should be held within six months,” the memorandum stated.

The memorandum also mentioned the Supreme Court’s decision in the case of Pramod Laxman Gudadhe vs. Election Commission of India and others in which it was declared that the provisions of the Representation of the People Act are binding on the Commission. In the media note issued by the Election Commission of India, this issue has been clarified that in case of more than one year remaining, a by-election is necessary to be held within six months of the vacancy.

Marandi, the state’s first chief minister, on Wednesday had written to governor C.P. Radhakrishnan “to save Jharkhand from constitutional crisis amidst the political turmoil manoeuvred at the hands of present chief minister”.

“It has widely been published in various newspapers that the present chief minister (Hemant Soren) may resign and a non-MLA shall be elected as a leader of JMM legislative party and in turn would be the leader of the alliance and present claim before the Governor.

“The same claim if made by a non-MLA to become the chief minister would be unconstitutional and unlawful,” Marandi letter claimed.

The letter also allayed fears that such development would bring the state to a constitutional crisis and claimed that no election can be held for any Assembly seat for the fifth Jharkhand Vidhan Sabha as per Section 151 A of the RP Act.

The Jharkhand Assembly secretariat had on Monday issued a notification accepting the resignation of Ahmed and notifying that the seat has become vacant from December 31.

However, the development heated up the political scenario in the state, especially after the Godda BJP MP Nishikant Dubey’s post on X where he took a swipe at Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren over the sudden resignation of the JMM MLA with claims that Soren would also resign soon.