Hours after the Election Commission of India announced fresh bypoll dates, the Karnataka Congress on Friday said the poll body seemed to be acting “under the instruction of the ruling BJP”. The party would want to know the reasons behind the ECI’s sudden announcement of fresh dates, said Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao.
Earlier in the day at a press conference, Mr. Rao said the ECI had “compromised its independence and acted in a partisan manner”, citing submissions made by it in the Supreme Court. “How is its [ECI’s] concern that it tells the Supreme Court that the [disqualified] MLAs can contest elections? And then on what basis did the ECI postpone the bypolls?” he asked.
He said that in the history of India, this was the first instance of the ECI cancelling elections after issuing notification without giving any reason. “This proves the ECI is compromised and is acting to the benefit of the BJP and the disqualified MLAs. We will write to the Election Commission and ask their grounds,” he said, and added that the decision was “arbitrary”. He accused the ECI of acting like “an agent of the BJP”, at a press conference here. Mr. Rao argued that the ECI had the right to postpone elections only after the President of India’s consent in cases such as riots, natural calamities, national emergency, and law and order problem. But such situation had not arisen and there was no ground for deferring the byelections. “Some candidates have already filed nomination papers for contesting the byelections. What will be their fate now?” he asked. He alleged that institutions such as CBI, I-T, ED, CIC, CAG, RBI, and “nearly all constitutional bodies” had been compromised.
Noting that the Supreme Court had not stayed the disqualification of MLAs by the former Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar, Mr. Rao said the party was hopeful of the apex court issuing a “historical order” to teach a fitting lesson to those who had challenged the then Speaker’s order. “Even if they contest the byelections, all disqualified MLAs will be defeated,” he added.
The KPCC chief said AICC leaders would be informed of the merits of Mr. Ramesh Kumar’s disqualification order and the manner in which the ECI acted during hearing of the case in the court.
The court will hear the petitions of the disqualified MLAs on October 22.
