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Hold Karnataka elections in May

The constitutional and democratic duty of the Election Commission of India is to conduct elections when they are due, unless for very strong reasons this becomes impossible. It must resist partisan pressures and considerations and do everything in its power to prepare for such elections efficiently — so that there is an elected legislative body and a representative and democratically accountable government. Article 324 of the Constitution vests in the Commission the “superintendence, direction and control” of the preparation of the electoral rolls for, and the conduct of, the relevant elections. Karnataka today presents a test case. Once the delimitation notification was signed by the President, it did seem that Assembly elections, which must be held on the basis of the redefined constituencies, would not be held in time for the new House to be constituted by May 28, the date on which the six-month term of President’s Rule ends. This was because it was assumed that the process of bringing into force the electoral rolls according to the new delimitation of constituencies would not be completed until several months after the deadline expired. Then came the realisation that Rule 24 of the Registration of Electors Rules, 1960 provides precisely for this kind of situation. The rule makes special provision that in the event of delimitation of a constituency and “it is necessary urgently to prepare the roll for such constituency,” the Commission may direct that it shall be prepared by “putting together the rolls of such of the existing constituencies or parts thereof as are comprised within the new constituency” and by appropriate consequential arrangements. In other words, the special provision is for a ‘cut and paste’ from the existing electoral rolls to the new situation. The current roll will be ready in early March and what the Commission needs to do is ensure that no polling station in the current dispensation is missed in the new one.

Fortunately, delimitation in Karnataka has resulted, in an overwhelming majority of cases, either in one taluka becoming an Assembly constituency or one of the circles being taken away from a taluka for the rest of it to become a constituency. Further, all wards have been kept intact in municipal areas. In a minority of cases, a circle has been broken up between two constituencies. Only in Bangalore will the ‘cut and paste’ task need substantial time, perhaps a month. If the Election Commission immediately announces its resolve to hold Karnataka Assembly elections by the due date, it should have a clear 40+ days to do its democratic duty. By invoking Rule 24, it will put an end to unsavoury efforts to force a postponement of the contest through the instrumentality of delimitation. In addition to being anti-democratic, any avoidable delay beyond May could lead to uncharted constitutional areas. The course of extending President’s Rule is completely independent of the process of getting the electoral machinery ready for elections. Karnataka must be spared any further constitutional uncertainty.

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