No plea filed to EC for bypoll: U’khand govt official

Tirath Singh Rawat or the Uttarakhand government have not petitioned the Election Commission of India to hold by-elections to allow the chief minister, who is not a member of the state legislature, to become a member of the house, a government official familiar with the matter said on Friday

Tirath Singh Rawat or the Uttarakhand government have not petitioned the Election Commission of India to hold by-elections to allow the chief minister, who is not a member of the state legislature, to become a member of the house, a government official familiar with the matter said on Friday.

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Rawat resigned late on Friday, suggesting he did so because the EC was unlikely to hold by-elections.

“The petition has not been received so far,” the official cited above said on condition of anonymity.

A chief minister, who is neither a member of the Legislative Assembly nor the Legislative Council, has to be elected to either house within six months of assuming office, according to the law.

Since Uttarakhand does not have a bicameral system, Rawat, who was appointed in March amid fierce dissent against former chief minister Trivendra Rawat, had time till September to be elected to the assembly.

According to the official quoted above, either the state or the chief minister has to petition the poll panel to conduct elections that are necessary to meet the constitutional requirements.

“The election commission can hold by-elections even if the general elections are less than a year away. There is no rule barring it. But in case there is a situation like Uttarakhand where the chief minister’s continuation in office depends on the bypoll, the state has to petition the poll panel which will then take a call on the elections,” the official said.

A similar situation was witnessed in 2020 when Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray was required to be elected to either the assembly or the legislative council. Since elections were then put on hold in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, there was pressure from the state government to relax restrictions to allow the elections.

Thackeray, who was eventually elected unopposed, had even sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in the matter.

Earlier, Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari had not acted on the state cabinet’s recommendation that Thackeray be nominated to the legislative council.

BJP functionaries could not be reached for a comment despite repeated attempts.