EC not in hurry for Wayanad bypoll, to wait for Rahul to appeal against conviction and sentencing

The trial court in Surat has given Rahul Gandhi 30 days to appeal in a higher court

The Election Commission is not in a hurry to conduct a bypoll at Wayanad in Kerala to fill the vacancy created in the Lok Sabha due to the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi following his conviction and sentencing in a defamation case.

“There is no hurry. We will wait,” Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar told journalists on Wednesday. He was replying to a question if the EC was planning to conduct a bypoll in Wayanad, the constituency which had elected Rahul Gandhi to the Lok Sabha in 2019.

The Court of Chief Judicial Magistrates in Surat in Gujarat on March 23 sentenced Rahul Gandhi to imprisonment for two years after convicting him in a criminal defamation case filed by Purnesh Modi, a Bharatiya Janata Party’s member in the legislative assembly of Gujarat, in 2019. The Chief Judicial Magistrate H H Varma, however, also immediately granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow the 52-year-old Congress leader to appeal in a higher court.

Read | Lok Sabha revokes disqualification of Lakshadweep MP Mohammad Faizal

A day after he was convicted and sentenced by the court in Gujarat, the Lok Sabha secretariat in New Delhi issued a notification, stating that Rahul Gandhi stood disqualified in accordance with Article 101 (1)(e) of the Constitution of India and Section 8 of the Representation of People’s Act.

Kumar on Wednesday said that Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951 mandated the EC to conduct bypolls to fill casual vacancies in both Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha as well as the state legislative assemblies and councils within six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy, provided that the remainder of the term of the member in relation to the vacancy was one year or more.

“Law gives us six months to hold a bypoll. The trial court has given (Rahul Gandhi) 30 days for a judicial remedy,” the Chief Election Commissioner said, explaining why the EC was not in a hurry to hold a bye-election in Wayanad to fill the vacancy created by the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi.

Also Read | Plea challenging Rahul Gandhi's conviction ready, to be moved soon

If Rahul Gandhi appeals in a higher court and gets his conviction and sentencing suspended, he will be reinstated as a member of the Lok Sabha.

The EC is apparently keen to tread cautiously in the case of Rahul Gandhi as it recently had to withhold the bypoll in the lone parliamentary constituency in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep in the wake of the Kerala High Court’s order suspending the conviction of Mohammed Faizal, the incumbent parliamentarian, by a lower court in a case of attempt to murder.

The conviction of Faizal, a member of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), by a court in the Union Territory earlier this year had led to his disqualification as a member of the Lok Sabha. The EC had on January 18 announced the bypoll in Lakshadweep LS constituency to fill the vacancy created by the disqualification of Faizal. The polling for the bye-election had been scheduled to be held on February 27 next, along with six other assembly constituencies in five other states. Faizal had moved the Supreme Court challenging the EC’s announcement of the bye-election in the parliamentary constituency in Lakshadweep. The EC had finally decided to withhold the bye-election.