The Election Commission of India has declared bypolls in Bhowanipore on September 30, clearing the decks for Mamata Banerjee to contest from there and virtually lifting the cloud of uncertainty over the Trinamul leader continuing as chief minister beyond November 5.
The counting for the bypolls in three Assembly seats in Bengal and one in Odisha is scheduled for October 3.
As Mamata was sworn in as the chief minister of Bengal on May 5 despite losing to the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari in Nandigram, she has to win from another seat and become a member of the Assembly within six months to carry on as the chief minister after November 5.
As soon as the poll dates were announced, Trinamul supporters hit the streets in Bhowanipore in celebration and began campaigning for Mamata.
Bhowanipore was vacated by agriculture minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay, who won with a margin of over 28,000 votes, on May 21 to enable Mamata to be elected to the Assembly.
The other two Bengal seats for which bypolls were declared are Jangipur and Samserganj — both in Murshidabad — where candidates died before polling in the summer.
Leaders of the the ruling Trinamul, which sent several delegations to Nirvachan Sadan for the timely conduct of the bypolls, welcomed the poll panel's announcement.
The Bengal unit of the BJP, which was all praise for the Election Commission during the eight-phase polls in the state, was bitterly critical of the poll panel for its decision to conduct the bypoll in Bhowanipore but not in Gosaba, Khardah, Shantipur and Dinhata, from where the winners either resigned or passed away.
The Bengal BJP has been opposing bypolls during the pandemic while the initial uncertainty had prompted a section of Trinamul leaders to point fingers at the Election Commission.
In a note, the Election Commission explained that it included Bhowanipore in the bypoll list, “considering the constitutional exigency and special request” from Bengal.
“He (the Bengal chief secretary) also cited that under Article 164(4) of the Constitution of India, …there will be a constitutional crisis and vacuum in the top executive posts in the government unless elections are held immediately.”
The Election Commission secretary, Sanjeev Kumar Prasad, added in the note that the commission decided against holding bye-elections in 31 other Assembly seats and three parliamentary constituencies based on inputs it had received from political parties and chief secretaries of these states.
In response to a question on the legality of such a consideration against the backdrop of the allegation of bias by the BJP, the Election Commission cited certain precedents.
“In the cases of former Prime Ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao in 1991 and H.D. Deve Gowda in 1996 and several chief ministers (like Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan in 1991; Rabri Devi of Bihar in 1997; Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy of Andhra Pradesh in 1993; the Uttar Pradesh chief minister in 2017; the Nagaland chief minister in 2017, the Maharashtra chief minister in May 2020), the commission conducted byelections to fulfil similar constitutional requirement. The commission noted that this has been the consistent practice,” the spokesperson said in a message to The Telegraph.
The Election Commission issued a slew of guidelines for the bypolls in view of the pandemic.
⚫ No processions before and after filing nominations and counting
⚫ Only three vehicles of the candidate will be allowed in a 100-metre radius of the nomination centre
⚫ Ceiling of 30 per cent capacity or 200 people for indoor campaign meetings and 50 per cent or 500 people for outdoor meetings, whichever is lower
⚫ No roadshows or car, bike, or bicycle rallies
⚫ Street corner meetings restricted to 50 people
⚫ Number of star campaigners restricted to 20 for national/state recognised parties and 10 for unrecognised parties
⚫ Not more than 20 vehicles allowed for a candidate/political party, excluding star campaigner
⚫ Passengers in each vehicle cannot exceed 50% capacity
⚫ Silence period increased from 48 to 72 hours before polling ends
The norms
The Election Commission issued a slew of guidelines for the bypolls in view of the pandemic.
⚫ No processions before and after filing nominations and counting
⚫ Only three vehicles of the candidate will be allowed in a 100-metre radius of the nomination centre
⚫ Ceiling of 30% capacity or 200 people for indoor campaign meetings and 50% or 500 people for outdoor meetings, whichever is lower
⚫ No roadshows or car, bike, or bicycle rallies
⚫ Street-corner meetings restricted to 50 people
⚫ Number of star campaigners restricted to 20 for national/state-recognised parties and 10 for unrecognised parties
⚫ Not more than 20 vehicles allowed for a candidate/political party, excluding star campaigner
⚫ Passengers in each vehicle cannot exceed 50% capacity
⚫ Silence period increased from 48 to 72 hours before polling ends
