No bypolls for 5 seats as EC lets Rahul Gandhi explore all appeal avenues

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha is not just the parliamentary constituency of Wayanad but four other Lok Sabha seats which are currently without an MP. Nearly half a dozen assembly seats without MLAs are also waiting for the Election Commission's bypoll announcements. Chandrapur and Pune Lok Sabha seats in Maharashtra fell vacant in May-end due to the death of the sitting MPs as did the Ambala seat in Haryana. Ghazipur MP Afzal Ansari was disqualified in early May leaving that seat vacant. Since all these parliamentary constituencies, including Wayanad, fell vacant before June 16, which is more than a year before the completion of the tenure of the 17th Lok Sabha, the EC is legally bound to hold bypolls to fill the vacant seats. Section 151A of the Representation of People's Act, 1951, mandates the poll panel to hold elections within six months of a vacancy arising and if there is more than a year of the tenure left. However, the delay in notifying the bypolls is moving the calendar too close to the Lok Sabha poll schedule, when a new MP will anyway have to be elected. That will raise another set of political concerns.

Real test of Opposition unity: Deal over seats

There are also several assembly bypolls waiting, the most recent being the Puthuppally seat rendered vacant after the demise of Oommen Chandy in Kerala, and Ghosi, following Dara Singh Chauhan changing his party. . The bypoll waitlist, ET gathers, is mainly because the poll panel appears to have chosen to allow Gandhi to exhaust all avenues of appeal before announcing the Wayanad bypoll. On March 24, the Lok Sabha announced the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as MP following his conviction in a 2019 defamation case by a