Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Monday spoke in favour of the ECI’s decision to conduct the by- elections on the Karnal assembly seat stating that there was ample time for the Vidhan Sabha elections.
Saini was in Karnal to chair a meeting of core group and various meetings of the four mandals. He met party leaders and social workers to discuss poll strategy.
Saini is the BJP candidate from Karnal constituency for the by-election necessitated after the resignation of former chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar on March 13.
Speaking to reporters at the BJP’s district office, Saini said that he met party leaders to ensure victory on the assembly seat as well as all 10 parliamentary seats with great margin.
On being asked about multiple public interest litigations (PIL) filed before the Punjab and Haryana HC seeking directions to the Election Commission to quash the Karnal bypoll, the chief minister said, “The decision of the court is above all.” Saini added,“There are more than six months and for the time being, if I’m given an opportunity, I’ll work for the public welfare.”
Congress MLA from Faridabad NIT, Neeraj Sharma, had earlier written to chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar to quash the Karnal assembly bypoll citing a March 26 order of Bombay high court which set aside the EC’s decision to hold by-election for Akola West assembly constituency in Maharashtra observing that conducting elections for a balance term of less than a year was violative of Section 151-A of the Representation of the People Act.
{{/usCountry}}Congress MLA from Faridabad NIT, Neeraj Sharma, had earlier written to chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar to quash the Karnal assembly bypoll citing a March 26 order of Bombay high court which set aside the EC’s decision to hold by-election for Akola West assembly constituency in Maharashtra observing that conducting elections for a balance term of less than a year was violative of Section 151-A of the Representation of the People Act.
{{/usCountry}}Sharma said that holding a by-election for the seat at this time will be a “wastage of public money” as the elected candidate will only remain a member of the assembly for a period of four months.
As per the recent announcement, voting for the Karnal assembly seat will be held simultaneously with Lok Sabha elections on May 25, for which another heavyweight, Khattar, is the party nominee. In addition to this, the state assembly elections are slated to be held in October as the five-year term of the Haryana assembly will end on November 3 this year.
The opposition parties are yet to declare their candidate against both the leaders.
While under the INDIA bloc agreement, Congress will announce their candidates on nine of 10 seats with only Kurukshetra going to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), there is no sign of other parties like INLD or JJP to contest on all the seats.