Assembly polls to be notified soon in Jharkhand: Centre

Dates for assembly elections in Jharkhand, which is now under President's rule, would be soon notified to the state soon, the Centre today told the Supreme Court.

Dates for assembly elections in Jharkhand, which is now under President's rule, would be soon notified to the state soon, the Centre on Monday told the Supreme Court.

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Attorney General G E Vahanvati told a bench of Chief Justice KG Balakrishnan and BS Chauhan that the Chief Election Commissioner had spoken to him and assured that the election dates would be notified soon.

However, counsel for BJP's Jharkhand unit which had filed the petition, questioned the Attorney General's claim and submitted election dates cannot be notified unless the state assembly was dissolved.

He said the assembly was deliberately kept under suspended animation rather than being dissolved, which could have facilitated conduct of elections.

The apex court, however, did not pass any direction and posted the matter for futher hearing after two weeks.

The petition filed by BJP's state unit spokesman Sanjay Seth sought a direction to the Centre to immediately dissolve the assembly and simultaneously announce the assembly elections.

Senior advocate Ajit Kumar Sinha had earlier complained that assembly elections were announced for Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh before schedule but Jharkhand was left out.

The House was kept under suspended animation after Shibu Soren resigned as Chief Minister after losing the assembly byelections and there was no clear majority for any political party or coalition.