PM Modi holds road show in Guwahati
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma received Prime Minister Modi at the airport as the electoral fervour grips the state with five seats of the state going to polls on April 19.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a plea by the Gujarat Congress seeking direction to the Election Commission (EC) to hold simultaneous polls for two Rajya Sabha seats from Gujarat. The court has listed the matter for a hearing on Wednesday.
Pareshbhai Dhanani, Congress MLA from Amreli and Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly, had moved the apex court against the EC decision to conduct separate by-polls for the two Rajya Sabha seats.
Filed through advocate Varun K Chopra, the petition sought an early hearing on the matter as the EC has already scheduled the elections for the two seats on 5 July.
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The notifications will be issued on Tuesday and elections and counting of votes will be held on 5 July, the poll panel said on Saturday.
The seats fell vacant after BJP leaders Amit Shah and Smriti Irani were elected to the Lok Sabha in the recently-held general elections.
In the 182-member Gujarat Assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 100 MLAs, Congress has 71 while seven seats are vacant.
“Separate elections for the two Rajya Sabha seats in Gujarat would upset the scheme of proportional representation as mandated under the Representation of People’s Act (RPA), 1951,” the petition stated.
It also contended that the representatives of each state in the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) shall be picked by the elected members from the Legislative Assembly of the state “in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote”.
The petition said the basic principle, both under the Constitution and the RPA, was that the elections be held together so that the system of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote can be applied.
Dhanani urged the apex court to quash the poll panel order and declare it “unconstitutional, arbitrary and illegal”.
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