The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) on Friday urged the Election Commission of India (ECI) to conduct a by-election to the Gandey Assembly seat "at the earliest".
The seat has fallen vacant after JMM legislator Sarfaraj Ahmad resigned from the Assembly on December 31. A notification in this regard was issued by the assembly secretariat on January 1.
A six-member delegation of the JMM led by party general secretaries Vinod Pandey and Supriyo Bhattacharya visited the office of Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) K. Ravi Kumar during the day and submitted a memorandum to him with a request to conduct the by-election.
Later, Mr. Pandey told reporters, "We urged him to conduct the by-election to Gandey Assembly seat within six months (from the date of resignation). The seat has fallen vacant after party MLA Sarfaraj Ahmad put down his papers."
According to Section 151A of the Representation of People Act, 1951, there is a provision to hold a by-election within six months in case the tenure of the assembly is more than one year, he said.
"The first session of the fifth Jharkhand Assembly was convened on January 6, 2020. According to Article 172 of the Constitution of India, the tenure of the fifth Jharkhand Assembly is till January 5, 2025," the JMM said in its memorandum.
Mr. Pandey said that since more than one year is left in the tenure of the fifth Assembly, the by-election should be conducted within six months.
"The CEO assured us that our request would be forwarded to the ECI and whatever guideline is received from the commission will be followed," he said.
Earlier, BJP MP from Godda constituency, Nishikant Dubey, in an X post, had said that with Assembly elections in Jharkhand due in less than a year, by-election to Gandey cannot be conducted now.
The Opposition BJP claimed that Ahmad was made to quit so that Chief Minister Hemant Soren's wife Kalpana Soren could contest from Gandey seat "in case of any eventuality" in connection with ED summonses to the CM for questioning in a money-laundering case linked to an alleged land scam.
In its latest summons to Soren issued last month, the ED asked the CM to inform the investigating officer about the date, venue, and time of his choice so that his statement could be recorded under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
Mr. Soren had skipped six earlier summonses by the ED, accusing the BJP-led Union government of using central agencies to destabilise his democratically elected government.
The Jharkhand chief minister, however, dismissed the speculation that his wife Kalpana Soren would contest from Gandey as "complete imagination" of the BJP.
