All political parties in Kerala, including the BJP, agreed against holding of by-election in the State at this juncture. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said after an all party meeting on Friday that the situation in the State was not conducive for holding elections. The meeting decided to write to the Election Commission of India not to hold the by-elections from the two Assembly constituencies of Kuttanadu and Chavara.
The seats fell vacant following the deaths of Thomas Chandy and Vijayan Pillai. The Election Commission had announced recently that election to the legislative assembly in Bihar and by-election to assemblies and a Lok Sabha seat would be held together.
“The State of Kerala is scheduled to go for Assembly election in March-April 2021 as the tenure of the present Assembly is coming to an end in May 2021.
Hence the all party meeting felt that it was a waste of time and money to hold the by-election to these assembly seats at this juncture.
The elected representatives would get hardly three months to function as MLAs,” said Chief Minister Vijayan while briefing the media after the meeting.
He said the State was already under the grip of Covid-19 pandemic and a by-election at this stage would result in the holding back all development programmes and announcements because of the model code of conduct.
The election to the local bodies in the State is also due as the tenure of the present bodies are coming to an end on November 2020. The new bodies should be in place by November 12.
“Hence we have decided to ask the State Election Commission and the ECI to delay the election to local bodies because of the prevailing conditions like pandemic,” said Vijayan.