Mumbai: An official of the state branch of the Election Commission of India (ECI) on Wednesday said that bypolls to 11 seats of the state Legislative Assembly will not be conducted as the term of the current 13th Legislative Assembly is slated to end in less than six months in November this year.
In the last six months, 11 seats of the Assembly have been vacated. Ten of the seat-holders resigned from the Legislative Assembly while one passed away. Of the ten who resigned, some did so because they switched from one party to another while the rest gave up their seats as they were elected as members of Parliament in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.
For instance, Katol legislator Ashish Deshmukh, who resigned as member of the Legislative Assembly in October 2018, formally joined the Congress in the same month of 2018. Imtiaz Jaleel of the AIMIM (All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen), who represented the Aurangabad central constituency of the Legislative Assembly, defeated four-time Shiv Sena MP Chandrakant Khaire in the recently concluded general elections. BJP's Pratap Patil Chikhalikar, who is the sitting legislator from the Shiv Sena, defeated Congress president Ashok Chavan in the Nanded parliamentary constituency.
Section 151A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, mandates that the ECI fill casual vacancies in the houses of Parliament and state Legislatures through by-elections within six months from the date of occurrence of a vacancy.
