The Supreme Court on Monday junked the petition filed by Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party urging the court to postpone the byelections in Bihar. While denying to hear the plea, SC said that it can not interfere in the election process at this stage. Notably, the bypolls in Bihar are scheduled for November 13. The court also asked why Jan Suraj had a problem when no other party was objecting to the dates. “You are a new political party, you should know the political zigzag,” the court said.
Jan Suraj Party had filed a petition in the apex court demanding the postponement of the by-elections to be held on four assembly seats in Bihar on November 13. Citing Chhath Puja, the party had demanded to extend the by-elections from 13 to 20 November.
What was the petition?
In the petition, the JSP had argued that the date of elections in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Kerala was extended by the Election Commission on the basis of religious events, whereas despite the folk festivals like Chhath in Bihar, the dates of by-elections in Bihar were not extended.
According to the petition, the Election Commission not considering the request to postpone elections in Bihar is unjust and also a violation of the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
Bihar bypolls
JSP has announced the names of the candidates for the by-elections which are to be held on four seats — Tarari, Ramgarh, Belaganj and Imamganj assembly seats — of Bihar. Jansuraj Party has fielded retired Lieutenant General SK Singh from the Tarari seat.
According to a statement from the Election Commission, a total of 50 candidates, including nine women, had filed their nomination papers till October 25, but six of those were rejected during scrutiny and an equal number of persons withdrew from the contest. Of the four constituencies, Belaganj has the highest number of 14 candidates, including RJD’s Vishwanath Kumar Singh, son of Surendra Prasad Yadav whose election to the Lok Sabha from Jehanabad has necessitated the by-election. The NDA’s bid to retain the seat, falling vacant upon Manjhi’s election from the Gaya Lok Sabha seat, faces the main challenge from RJD’s Raushan Manjhi, a former member of Zila Parishad.
(With inputs from agencies)
