EDITORIAL
Even as the bypoll set the mood for 2027, it resulted in a truncated Assembly session
On Sunday, the Election Commission of India (ECI) announced the poll schedule for four states – West Bengal, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Kerala – and the Union territory of Puducherry. Besides, some bypolls have been announced in certain constituencies. Among these is Ponda.
The bypoll has been necessitated following the death of Ravi Naik, former Congress chief minister and former deputy chief minister under Manohar Parrikar, in November last year. Being an Assembly bypoll, the election fever will impact many parts of the state in the weeks to come.
However, one important issue that came up on Sunday after the ECI announcement was whether the government would face restrictions on passing the demands for grants as the Code of Conduct is applicable to South Goa. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant had said that the ECI would be consulted on the matter. The Model Code of Conduct has no statutory backing and the House is supreme in conducting its affairs, but considering that announcements during the proceedings of the Assembly could lead to a violation of the Code of Conduct, the government on Monday decided to curtail the sitting of the session. This had been done in the past in similar situations. However, the issue was whether the full budget was to be passed or whether a vote-on-account was to be taken. Many times, a vote-on-account is taken for four months and a detailed discussion on the Budget is held in the monsoon session. The government, however, decided to pass the full budget, stating that this is an election year. The municipal elections are likely to be held in May this year and Assembly elections could be in February 2027. Thus, the session, which was to continue till March 27, came to an abrupt close after the full budget was passed on Monday.
Probably, the government did not want to wait till August with a vote-on-account. Passing the full budget gives it the authority to spend the money. Their contention will be that if the Code of Conduct for the February elections comes into effect by early January, they would like to spend the money meant for infrastructure and non-salary expenditure for the financial year ending March 2027 by December itself. Normally, during an election year, the government (irrespective of whichever party is in power) would like to make new announcements, give assurances, or clear pending dues under various schemes, with its eyes on the electorate.
The Ponda bypoll is scheduled for April 9 and the result will be on May 4. Politically speaking, the election is inconsequential as far as the arithmetic goes. In the current 39-member Assembly, the BJP and its allies have 32 members and the Opposition has seven. The new MLA will get around 10 months as a MLA.
The BJP seems to have already made up its mind on who its candidate will be. Once again, the question is whether it will honour its old guard or go for ‘imports’ with a winnability factor. Accordingly, it has shortlisted and dispatched two names to the party’s central election committee. National parties resort to such a ‘strategy’ at the state level when they want to keep both camps guessing. In reality, the state-level units give their preference but, to avoid ‘untoward incidents’ such as some members quitting the party or contesting as rival candidates, they send more than one name to the central election panel. The Congress is also facing a similar situation. On Monday, the state unit president announced recent-joinee Dr Ketan Bhatikar’s name.
With the declaration of the Ponda bypoll, the election season is expected to pick up steam.
