Gurugram: After former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar resigned as Karnal MLA in the Vidhan Sabha on 13 March this year, it took a few hours for the Speaker to accept his resignation, a day for the Election Commission (EC) to declare the seat vacant, and another two days to announce the bypoll. In a similar case involving Haryana Power Minister Ranjit Singh Chautala, Speaker Gian Chand Gupta has been sitting on a decision for a month.
On 24 March, Chautala resigned as MLA from Sirsa’s Rania seat, which he had won as an Independent, in order to join the BJP and contest the Hisar Lok Sabha seat as a BJP candidate. The Speaker on 23 April summoned him to the Vidhan Sabha for the acceptance of his resignation. But Chautala informed Gupta about his preoccupation with election campaigning, and now the Speaker has asked to meet him on 30 April.
Political observers believe the Speaker has been delaying the acceptance of Chautala’s resignation to avoid a bypoll in the Rania assembly seat, where the INLD (Indian National Lok Dal) has a lot of influence.
The Karnal assembly bypoll, however, is significant for the BJP since Nayab Singh Saini, who on 12 March took over as CM from Khattar, will contest the seat as the BJP candidate and has to win to continue as Haryana CM since he was previously an MP.
“When the Speaker can accept Khattar’s resignation within hours, what stops him from doing the same with Ranjit Singh’s resignation?” political analyst Mahabir Jaglan asked on a phone call with ThePrint Wednesday.
Hemant Atri, another political analyst, believes this is a “pre-planned strategy” to delay the acceptance of Chautala’s resignation to avoid the bypoll.
However, the Speaker Wednesday told ThePrint that the delay in Chautala’s case had nothing to do with avoiding a bypoll. “The rules provide that when a member resigns, he has to submit his resignation in person to the Speaker. However, Ranjit Singh’s resignation came through a messenger,” said Gupta.
“As a Speaker, I have to verify that he resigned of his free will and not under pressure from, or fear of, anyone. He had informed me that he would be coming on 24 March. However, on his request, a fresh date of 30 April has been given to him now,” he added.
The Speaker cited the example of Sonipat Congress MLA Surender Pawar, who submitted his resignation in July 2022 citing personal reasons, but later said that he had done this after receiving a threat on his phone from abroad.
Gupta said he allowed Pawar to withdraw the resignation after the latter alleged that the caller threatened to kill his son.
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‘Government not bound to hold a bypoll’
Jaglan referred to a similar case in Maharashtra, where the Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench in March scrapped an Election Commission notification for a bypoll to the Akola West assembly seat. The court had cited the fact that the state elections were coming up soon and said the new MLA would not get sufficient time to serve.
However, Jaglan said, despite the Haryana assembly elections also being just a few months away, the state’s BJP-led government had defended the holding of the Karnal bypoll after a petition against such a move in the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
This, he added, was because the ruling BJP wanted Saini to become Karnal MLA and continue as CM.
“However, the ruling party doesn’t want a byelection at the Rania assembly seat, which the INLD (Indian National Lok Dal) has won in two out of three elections since the seat was created during the 2007-08 delimitation exercise,” said Jaglan.
He said the idea behind asking Chautala to appear before the Speaker as late as 30 April —a day after the EC is scheduled to notify the sixth phase of the parliamentary polls and the Karnal bypolls — is that there would be no chance for another bypoll announcement so close to the state elections.
“The government doesn’t want to vacate a seat by accepting a resignation before the notification of the Lok Sabha polls, and the member (Chautala) also doesn’t want to lose his seat while he also wants to retain his Cabinet berth in the Nayab Singh Saini ministry,” said Atri.
Atri said he was surprised that Ranjit Singh could join the BJP and become its candidate without an acceptance of his resignation as an Independent MLA. “This warrants his immediate disqualification as MLA,” he added.
Legal experts, however, said that whenever the Speaker accepts Ranjit Singh’s resignation, he can do so with effect from 24 March, the day the resignation was submitted.
“Ranjit Singh was sworn in as a minister in Nayab Singh’s cabinet 12 March and allocated the power and jail departments. Though he submitted his resignation as an MLA 24 on March, he continues as a (cabinet) minister. Now, after the Speaker accepts his resignation from the date of submission, there will be no bar on Singh remaining a (cabinet) minister for six months without being an MLA,” said Hemant Kumar, an advocate of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
He said that even if the Speaker had accepted Singh’s resignation in March when it was submitted, the government was not bound to hold a bypoll.
“In its judgment, while upholding the byelection for the Karnal assembly seat, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has clearly described the seat as a special case, where a CM (Saini) has to attempt to become (an) MLA as he has so far been an MP,” said Kumar.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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