What To Do About 'Forced' Bypolls?
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-09-26 15:06:18
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
The Calcutta High Court has rightly asked the Election Commission (EC) to explain why government funds should be used to hold a by-election that is thrust upon the people by the resignation of a sitting member in order to facilitate another member of the party to contest from there. The instant reference was for the Bhowanipore bypoll in Kolkata which is happening because the sitting MLA, TMC's Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, resigned in order to let chief minister Mamata Banerjee contest from there and enter the assembly if she wins. As Banerjee had lost narrowly in Nandigram during the elections in May, she has to become a member of the assembly to continue being the chief minister. While the instant case was about Bhowanipore, this is true all over India when politicians resign from seats they win to let others contest or others who contest from more than one seat, keep one and resign from others necessitating bypolls. Even Prime Minister Modi had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha polls from Vadodara and Varanasi and resigned from Vadodara after winning in both constituencies. The expenditure for such 'forced' bypolls is borne by the EC.
This is a genuine problem where public funds are spent unnecessarily to accommodate the whims of political parties or individuals. If a sitting member dies or is disqualified, it is another matter as the seat cannot be allowed to remain vacant. But the law is such that a sitting member can resign from his seat anytime. The political parties take advantage of this to force an unnecessary bypoll on people.
There is no easy solution to this problem. Sitting members cannot be denied their democratic right to resign their seat. Any huge monetary penalty for the action, if imposed, will not be fair. Hence, it is upon political parties to decide how this unnecessary drain on public funds can be avoided. Perhaps in such circumstances, parties can be allowed to nominate another person to replace the one they ask to resign, thereby avoiding the need for a bypoll. But for that to happen, a change in the relevant law will need to be made. Further, what would happen in case of an independent candidate? As one said earlier, there is no easy solution to this problem.
