Kerala: Political parties to avoid by-polls amid Covid-19 crisis.

Kochi, Sept 11 (HS) : An all party meeting convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday morning unanimously decided to write to the Election Commission of India not to hold the by-elections from the two assembly constituencies of Kuttanadu and Chavara.

The seats fell vacant following the deaths of Thomas Chandy (December 2019) and Vijayan Pillai (March 2020). The Election Commission had decided recently to hold the by-election to these two constituencies along with the assembly election in Bihar which is due in November.

“Kerala is scheduled to go for assembly election in March-April 2021 as the tenure of the present assembly is coming to an end in May 2021. Hence, the all party meeting felt that it was a waste of time and money to hold the by-election to these assembly seats at this juncture. The elected representatives would get hardly three months to function as MLAs,” said Chief Minister Vijayan while briefing the media after the meeting.

He said that the state was already under the grip of Covid-19 pandemic and a by-election at this stage would result in the holding back all development programmes and announcements because of the model code of conduct.

The election to the local bodies in the state is also due as the tenure  of the present bodies are coming to an end on November 2020. The new bodies should be in place by November 12. “Hence we have decided to ask the State Election Commission and the ECI to delay the election to local bodies because of the prevailing conditions like pandemic,” said Vijayan.