Opposition hails HC ruling on Pune LS bypoll

Opposition parties in Maharashtra welcomed the Bombay High Court ruling on Wednesday asking the Election Commission of India (ECI) to immediately hold the bypoll for the Pune Lok Sabha seat, stressing people from the constituency cannot be left unrepresented for a long time.

The Congress termed the HC ruling as a rap for the governing coalition constituent BJP and also the poll panel.

“It is a big rap for the Election Commission and the BJP, which was avoiding the bypoll as it fears defeat,” said Mohan Joshi, vice-president of the Maharashtra Congress.

The NCP (Sharad Pawar group) Pune city unit president Prashant Jagtap welcomed the court’s ruling and echoed Joshi, saying the BJP was avoiding facing bypoll in the Lok Sabha seat as the party does not want to lose again after suffering defeat in the by-election to the Kasba assembly constituency in Pune city held early this year.

However, BJP leader and former Pune mayor Murlidhar Mohol said the HC’s ruling must be respected and should not be seen through political prism.

The ECI is an independent body which has right to take its own decisions, he said.

“So, there is no question of someone trying to interfere in the ECI’s decision-making process,” Mohol maintained.

He said as a political party, the BJP is always ready to contest elections and pointed out that the Pune Lok Sabha seat was won in 2019 by its candidate Girish Bapat, whose death has necessitated the bypoll.

Earlier in the day, a division bench of Justices Gautam Patel and Kamal Khata ripped into the ECI’s stand on not holding the byelection as it was busy with other polls, including preparation for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, calling it “bizarre and wholly unreasonable”.

“In any parliamentary democracy, governance is done by elected representatives who are the voices of people. If the representative is no more, another must be put in place. People cannot go unrepresented. That is wholly unconstitutional and is a fundamental anathema to our constitutional structure,” the court noted.

The HC passed its order on a plea filed by Pune resident Sughosh Joshi against a certificate issued by the EC to not hold the by-election to the constituency, which fell vacant following the death of sitting BJP Member of Parliament Girish Bapat on March 29.