All-party meeting for deferring Kerala Assembly by-polls and local body polls

An all-party meeting convened by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday decided to urge the Election Commission to drop the proposed by-polls for two assembly seats considering how short the term will be for the elected members.

The state election commission will be also urged to postpone the elections to the local bodies considering the coronavirus scenario in the state.

The Election Commission recently announced that by-polls to Kuttanad in Alappuzha and Chavara in Kollam, which became vacant owing to death of sitting MLAs, would be conducted by November. But the term of the present government is ending by May 2021. Hence the MLAs getting elected in the by-polls might get only around three months to work as the model code of conduct for general election might come by March 2021.

The Chief Minister said that all political parties agreed to dropping the by-polls and hence a request would be made to the election commission.

Though the state government recently made a request to the Election Commission, the Commission did not entertain it. Hence the Chief Minister convened the all-party meeting.

Elections to local bodies

The term of the current local bodies are ending by November. But conducting elections at this time involves serious risk owing to the Covid surge in the state. Hence the state election commission would be urged to slightly postpone the elections, said the Chief Minister.

The BJP had earlier expressed reservations over postponing the local body elections.

Sources said that according to the norms, the local body elections could be postponed only for a maximum of six months and once the term of the elected members ends, the governance of local bodies would have to be handed over to a steering committee preferably led by a respective district collectors.