Cong poll protest over Golay

RAJEEV RAVIDAS, TT, 2 October 2019, Gangtok: The Congress has decided not to take part in three Sikkim Assembly byelections constituencies to protest the Election Commission's decision to reduce the disqualification period of chief minister P. S. Golay, enabling him contest the October 21 polls.

Bharat Basnet, the Sikkim Pradesh Congress Committee (SPCC) president, told The Telegraph on Tuesday that the no-contest move was aimed at "denying legitimacy" to the poll panel's order.

"The ECI came out with its order on September 29, a day after the Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) and BJP announced an alliance for the bypolls. The ECI is functioning like a unit of the BJP…We have decided not to contest the bypolls to protest the ECI order," Basnet said.

The Congress had contested in all 32 Assembly seats in the summer elections but drew a blank. It had polled less than one per cent of the votes.

The other point, Basnet said, was the fact that the ECI chose to ignore the fact that the very appointment of Golay as chief minister is being challenged in the Supreme Court. "How could the ECI act on a matter which is sub judice?," he asked.

Golay, also the SKM president, had not contested the Assembly election earlier this year in which his party had emerged victorious by a slender margin, but was sworn in as the chief minister on May 23.

The law demands that Golay should get himself elected to the Assembly within six months of assuming office, but since he is a corruption convict, a provision of the Representation of Peoples Act, 1951 barred him from contesting for six years from August 10, 2018, the day he was released from prison after serving a year's term.