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Journalism of Courage
The decision of the Election Commission (EC) to delink the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections had raised quite a few eyebrows, especially given that the two states went to polls at the same time in the last three election cycles. This time, the EC announced the schedule for Haryana on August 16 and polls were held in the state on October 5, while the Maharashtra schedule was announced on October 15 with the state scheduled to vote on November 20 in a single phase.
With the current Maharashtra Assembly’s term set to expire on November 26, just three days after result day, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut has questioned the schedule announced by the EC, even seeing a ploy by the BJP to finally impose President’s Rule in the state so as to keep the Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) out of power.
Is there any weight in Raut’s allegations and what do the rules say?
On Sunday, the Sena (UBT) leader said that the Mahayuti government was planning to impose President’s Rule in the state and the EC had made the poll schedule keeping this in mind. Raut’s argument was that the dates left any coalition very little time to form the government as there was only a three-day window between the announcement of results and the expiry of the current term of the Assembly.
“Polling is on November 20 and a new government needs to be installed by November 26. Generally, the window is not so small. After the MVA’s victory, their legislators would need to come from across the state to elect legislature party leaders. Maharashtra is a big state and this will take time. (Union Home Minister) Amit Shah does not want the MVA government… They want to impose President’s Rule immediately after November 26 and hence such a short time frame has been provided,” he said.
Alleging an attempt by the BJP “to use the EC to manipulate the polls”, Raut claimed the issue had also been discussed at a meeting of MVA partners – Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT) and NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) – last week.
He also claimed that names of “MVA voters” were being deleted in the seats that the BJP was contesting, while “bogus voters” were being added. Earlier, Raut had questioned the “short” window of campaigning of 35 days before the announcement of dates and the polls.
Though other factors like weather, festivals and the availability of security forces and examinations are considered by the EC, the most important factor used to determine the schedule is the date of expiry of the legislature as rules prescribe polls to be held before the date.
Article 172 (1) of the Constitution, which fixes the term for state Assemblies, says: “Every Legislative Assembly of every state, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer, and the expiration of the said period of five years shall operate as a dissolution of the Assembly.”
Additionally, Section 15 of The Representation of the People Act, 1951, stipulates that the notification for an Assembly election should be issued not earlier than six months before the end of the term of the House.
While giving the EC the sole prerogative of scheduling polls, the rules do not mandate any timeframe within which the polls must be completed or duration within which parties must stake claim for government formation. However, the whole exercise must be completed within six months of the completion of the Assembly’s term.
The EC’s role, in fact, ends once it has handed over a list of elected MLAs to the Governor for government formation. Subsequently, an Assembly session is called and the new legislators take oath of office.
With regard to campaigning too, the law does not mandate any fixed amount of time but the Model Code of Conduct, which comes into force once the polls are announced, mandates campaigning to end 48 hours before the start of polling.
Usually, the EC tries to leave ample time for post-result formalities, but in recent times it has scheduled results close to the expiry date of Assemblies. For instance, the results of the Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh Assemblies were announced on June 2, the same day as their terms expired.
