Suspense persists over the time by which the byelection to the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly seat is likely to be held. The vacancy has arisen following the sudden death of sitting MLA G. Sayanna on Sunday.
In the normal course, the State Legislature Secretariat will notify the vacancy in the coming couple of days and forward the same to the Chief Electoral Officer’s office, the representative of the Election Commission of India in the State. The EC would take a call on the bypoll as the vacancy has to be filled within six months from the day it has been notified and the seat should be filled by August third week if poll procedure has to be followed.
Doubts are however persisting on whether the bypoll will be taken up now as the process for notification of the Assembly elections will be taken up in less than 10 months. The first sitting of the Assembly after 2018 December elections was held on January 17, 2019 and its tenure is set to expire on January 16 next year before which the election process should be completed in all respects.
Accordingly, the notification for the Telangana Assembly elections would be issued towards the end of September so that the process could be completed in time. On the other hand, elections are scheduled for the Karnataka Assembly in April this year. Given this background, all eyes are on the EC’s decision on whether it would prefer holding the bypoll along with the Karnataka Assembly elections or whether it would hold the process in accordance with the rules.
