The by-elections to the vacant seats in the Karnataka Assembly will be held on 5 December, announced the Election Commission of India on Friday.
The decision comes a day after the EC told the Supreme Court that it will defer the by-elections to the 15 vacant seats in the Karnataka Assembly. The SC was informed of this decision while hearing the plea of the 17 disqualified MLAs who were barred from contesting the 21 September by-election.
According to the EC notification, the nomination process will restart on 11 November, the last date to file nomination is 18 November and the last date for scrutiny of nomination is 19 November. The results will be announced on 9 December.
Meanwhile, the SC posted the hearing in MLAs' case on 22 October.
On 21 September, the EC had announced by-elections to constituencies represented by 15 of the 17 disqualified former Congress-JD(S) MLAs on 21 October, the results of which were to be declared on 24 October.
The absence of the 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs during the trust vote had resulted in the HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government collapsing in July. The MLAs were subsequently disqualified by then Karnataka Speaker K Ramesh Kumar and banned from contesting elections till the end of the government's term.
This decision of the Speaker was challenged by the disqualified MLAs, who sought a fast trail since the last date for filing nominations for the by-election is 30 September.
One of the first reactions to the court's decision came from disqualified MLA N Munirathna, who said:
“We have been fighting this case since Monday. SC said that we need to go into details of the case. We can only give verdict after that is done, EC said elections are postponed. We believe we will get justice.”
EC Is a Puppet of Government: HD Kumaraswamy
Reacting to the EC's decision, former Karnataka chief minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy said: "In Indian political history it's the first time such a decision has been given by a constitutional authority. Anyone can judge EC is puppet of the government."
However, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundurao tweeted welcoming the EC’s decision.
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