EC cancels Rajya Sabha polls of 3 states slated for June 8

No reason was given by the Election Commission for the sudden decision to cancel the elections to the Rajya Sabha seats the after the brief announcement

The Election Commission on Monday cancelled the biennial elections to 10 Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal, Goa and Gujarat which are slated for June 10.

In a brief press note, EC announced the decision to withdraw the press note it had issued for these elections on May 16, saying the programme for holding these elections will be announced in due course.

A lot of curiosity was generated because of the May 16 announcement since it involved four top personalities – Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel and Textile Minister Smriti Irani from Gujarat and CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechuri and Trinamul Congress leader Derek O’Brien.

No reason was given for the sudden decision to cancel the elections after announcing it. Political parties had reportedly protested holding of the elections more than two months ahead of the completion of the current West Bengal and Gujarat MPs’ term only on August 18 .

Even for Goa it was too early since Congress MP Shantaram Naik is completing his term only on July 28.

There were even rumours that the current MPs may lose chance to vote in the Presidential election in July if their successors are elected. An EC official, however, explained that the newly elected MPs cannot take part in the Presidential election since they will be able to take oath only after the term of the present MPs expire.

Six of the 16 MPs retiring from West Bengal are: Sitaram Yechuri (CPM), Pradip Bhattacharya (Cong) and Derek O''Brien, Debabrata Bandyopadhyay, Sukendusekhar Roy and Dola Sen (all TMC). Besides Ahmed Patel and Irani, the third MP retiring from Gujarat is BJP’s Dilipbhai Pandya.