From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Oct 9: Apparently stung by the criticism for announcing by-elections for the three vacant lok sabha seats in Karnataka – Mandya, Shivamogga and Ballari, on November 3 with hardly five months left for the next general elections due to be held by May 2019 and not for the five vacant seats in Andhra Pradesh, the Election Commission (EC) on Tuesday sought to clear the air by declaring that the dates when the vacancies arose was the deciding factor.

It may be recalled that all political parties, especially BJP which is in power at the Centre and the two ruling coalition partners, Congress and JD(S), have criticized the poll panel’s decision for announcing the by-election to the three lok sabha seats in the State as totally unnecessary and waste of money.

In the statement, the Election Commission said that Section 151A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, requires the poll panel to fill casual vacancies in Parliament and State Legislatures through by-elections within six months from date of vacancy, as long as the remainder of term of a member in relation to a vacancy is one year or more.

The poll panel justified its decision based on the date of vacancy for the three seats in Karnataka.

The vacancies from Ballari (ST) and Shivamogga of Karnataka occurred on May 18, and Mandya on May 21, 2018 respectively, whereas vacancies from the five parliamentary constituencies from Andhra Pradesh have occurred on June 20, 2018, the Election Commission has said in its statement.

It further held that, “In the case of vacancies from Andhra Pradesh, there is no need to hold bye-elections as the remaining term of the Lok Sabha is less than one year from the date of occurrence of vacancies that is June 20, 2018.”

Earlier, Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa had questioned the poll panel’s decision to announce the by-polls stating that the term for the newly elected representatives would only be for five months till the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“I cannot understand the intention behind holding the by-polls since general elections will be held in four or five months. None of the political parties in Karnataka are enthusiastic about this election,” Yeddyurappa had said.

Former State Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is also the chairman of the coordination committee for the Congress-JD(S) government, said, “The Lok Sabha election is going to be held in March and we were thinking that a by-poll will not be conducted. The ECI has, however, declared the dates of the by-elections.”

The by-polls have been necessitated in the three seats in Karnataka after BJP’s B S Yeddyurappa (Shivamogga), B Sriramulu (Ballari) and JD(S) MP C S Puttaraju (Mandya) resigned their seats following their election to the Karnataka Assembly in May.