EC announces bypolls to six RS seats
New Delhi, Jun 15: The Election Commission Saturday announced bypolls to six Rajya Sabha seats on July 5, including the one vacated by BJP chief Amit Shah following his election to the Lok Sabha.
Notifications will be issued on June 18 and elections and counting of votes will be held on July 5.
In a statement, the commission clarified that the vacancies for bypolls to all Houses, including the Rajya Sabha, are considered "separate vacancies" and separate notifications are issued and separate polls are held, though the schedule can be the same.
It cited two Delhi High Court rulings of 1994 and 2009 which had supported the system of holding separate bypolls in the same state under provisions of the Representation of the People Act.
The Congress had demanded that the bypolls to the two vacant seats in Gujarat be held together as it felt that it could win one of the two Rajya Sabha seats vacated by Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani.
The Congress felt that in case of separate elections, the BJP would have an advantage as it is the ruling party and it can win both the seats.
The Gujarat seats fell vacant after Shah won from Gandhinagar and Irani from Amethi Lok Sabha constituencies respectively.
The other seats for which bypolls have been announced are one vacated by Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (Bihar) and Achuytananda Samanta (Odisha) following their election to the Lok Sabha.
The Rajya Sabha bypolls will also be held on two more seats from Odisha. While one was vacated by Pratap Kesari Deb who got elected to the state assembly and Soumya Ranjan Patnaik who resigned.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
