Boon for Rajnath, UP polls may be two years away

Boon for Rajnath, UP polls may be two years away
SHARAD GUPTA

NEW DELHI, NOV 3: In A move that could mean a setback to poll preparations of various parties, the Election Commission has clarified that Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh would be held only in April 2002.

The state Assembly was constituted in October 1996, but since no political party or combination had the numbers then to form the government, then governor Romesh Bhandari had put the House in suspended animation.

Most of the political parties, including the Samajwadi Party and BSP, had been gearing up for Assembly elections in October next year. The EC officials, however, cite the Constitution in support of their decision to hold the UP Assembly polls in April 2002. ``Every Legislative Assembly of every state, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting,'' says Article 172 of the Constitution. ``Since the first meeting of the current Assembly was convened on April 21, 1997, after the BSP and BJP came together to cobble a majority, its tenure is up to April 20, 2002,'' a senior official of the commission told The Indian Express.

Asked how UP MLAs could have a tenure of five and a half years, with full pay and perks, EC officials pointed out that sometimes the Assembly was dissolved prematurely, making MLAs lose their privileges.

The EC decision would mean that Chief Minister Rajnath Singh, who took over only on October 28, still has a year and a half left to rule the state.

Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill, however, refused to comment on when he intended to conduct polls in UP. ``I am aware of the controversy, but I am still studying various aspects of the issue,'' he told reporters yesterday.