JOIN USEC throws a lifeline to Mamata Banerjee
The Election Commission on Saturday threw a lifeline to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and announced the schedule for the bypoll in Bhabanipur, thus giving the Trinamool Congress supremo an opportunity to get herself elected to the Legislative Assembly of the state.
The polling for the by-election in Bhabanipur Assembly Constituency of West Bengal will be held on September 30. The votes will be counted and the result will be declared on October 3 – just about four weeks before the deadline for Banerjee to get elected to the State Assembly will end. Though by-elections were expected to be held in altogether five assembly constituencies in West Bengal and 27 in other states, the EC decided to hold bypoll only in Bhabanipur, citing “constitutional exigency”.
The EC quoted the Chief Secretary of West Bengal conveying to it that the Covid-19 situation was under control in the state and the by-election in Bhabanipur should be held immediately in view of the administrative exigencies and public interest and to avoid a constitutional crisis and a vacuum in the top executive posts in the state government.
The commission had similarly come to the rescue of Maharashtra Chief Minister and Shiv Sena supremo Uddhav Thackeray and held bypolls to fill up nine vacancies in the state legislative council on May 21 last year amid the nationwide lockdown to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.
The EC will also hold polling in Samserganj and Jangipur assembly constituencies of West Bengal and the Pipli assembly constituency in Odisha on September 30. The polling in the three constituencies during the assembly elections in West Bengal and Odisha in March-April this year were adjourned due to death of the candidates.
It, however, did not announce by-elections to fill up three vacancies in the Lok Sabha too.
Banerjee led her party to a landslide victory in the assembly polls, but lost to her protege-turned-foe Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP in Nandigram. She commenced her third term as the Chief Minister of West Bengal on May 5 last. She had time till the first week of November to get elected to the legislative assembly in order to continue at the helm of the State Government.
Sovandeb Chattopadhyay of the Trinamool Congress was elected to the legislative assembly from Bhabanipur during the recent elections in West Bengal. He, however, resigned from the membership of the State Assembly, apparently to make way for the Trinamool Congress supremo to contest from the constituency, which she was representing in the House since 2011. The Trinamool Congress over the past few months repeatedly submitted memorandums to the EC, asking it to hold the by-elections to fill the vacancies in the legislative assembly of West Bengal.
The EC stated that it had decided against holding by-elections to fill up the 31 assembly seats and the three Lok Sabha seats, as the Chief Secretaries of the states, except West Bengal and Odisha, conveyed to it that it would be advisable to hold the bypolls after the upcoming festival season. They also brought to the EC’s notice the constraints like flood and the Covid-19 situation, including the possibility of a third wave of the pandemic.
Not only Thackeray and Banerjee, the EC had in the past similarly come to the rescue of others too – former prime ministers P V Narasimha Rao and H D Deve Gowda in 1991 and 1996 respectively, several chief ministers, including Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) in 1991, Rabri Devi (Bihar) in 1997 and Vijay Bhaskar Reddy (Andhra Pradesh) in 1993.