Election petition, SIR delay bypolls to 2 LS seats
An election petition and the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls have delayed bypolls to two Lok Sabha seats, while a by-election to another parliamentary constituency has already been announced.
The Basirhat seat in West Bengal, the Shillong seat in Meghalaya and the Nagaon constituency in Assam fell vacant on different dates.
The Election Commission on Monday announced a bypoll to the Nagaon Lok Sabha seat but not to the other two.
Responding to a query on why bypolls to the Shillong and Basirhat parliamentary seats were not announced, senior EC functionaries said the ongoing SIR in Meghalaya and a pending election petition in the Calcutta High Court were behind the decision. An election petition was filed challenging the election of TMC’s SK Nurul Islam from Basirhat. But months after taking the oath as a Lok Sabha member, he died on September 25, 2024.
Despite his death, the petition challenging his election remains pending. An election petition can be filed against the victory of a candidate in the concerned high court within 45 days of the declaration of results.
EC officials said an “election petition with second prayer” is pending.
The second prayer in an election petition usually asks the high court to declare the petitioner or another candidate as duly elected, after the first prayer declaring the winning candidate’s election as void.
The Shillong Lok Sabha seat was vacated following the demise of Voice of the People’s Party MP Ricky Andrew Syngkon on February 19 this year.
Poll authority functionaries said the SIR is in progress in Meghalaya, where the final electoral rolls will be published on October 21.
The lone Lok Sabha bypoll will be held in Assam’s Nagaon constituency, which was vacated by Pradyut Bordoloi. Votes will be cast on October 6, and counting will take place on October 9.
Bordoloi had won Nagaon on a Congress ticket in 2024 but quit the party in March this year and joined the BJP ahead of the Assam assembly elections. He subsequently resigned from the Lok Sabha, contested the assembly polls as a BJP candidate from Dispur and won.
