EC offer to postpone bypoll unprecedented: Congress

Congress on Thursday termed as “unprecedented” the Election Commission offer to put-off the bypolls to 15 Karnataka assembly seats to allow the Supreme Court to take a final decision on the petitions filed by the disqualified legislators.

“The offer to defer the re-election process itself is unprecedented, but, Supreme Court is right because they are final and there is no appeal beyond there,” Congress chief spokesman Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal said the decision of the Supreme Court to not interfere with election process was in the spirit of the constitution.

“SC not only declined to grant stay to the disqualification, it decided to treat the merit of the matter independently,” he said.

Venugopal accused the Election Commission of offering to postpone the bypolls under the instructions of the government to favour its agenda.

Surjewala said Speaker's order to disqualify the MLAs was not stayed by the Supreme Court, suggesting that the directives were correct.

The Election Commission told the Supreme Court that it will put off by-polls to the 15 Karnataka Assembly seats that were scheduled for October 21 till the judges decide on petitions by the disqualified legislators.