The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) Manipur has written to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking permission to conduct by-elections in three more Assembly constituencies the seats of which are lying vacant. The constituencies are Singhat, Saitu and Wangoi, which were earlier declared as “clear vacant” by the ECI.
It is learned that the CEO office, Manipur sent the written request to ECI after the former MLAs of the three constituencies submitted an application to the former’s office requesting for by-polls in their respective constituencies.
Prior to the development, Chief Minister N Biren Singh said the state government will appeal to the ECI to give permission for conducting by-polls in a handful of the Assembly constituencies that does not directly come under the purview of stay order or similar ones in the High Court or the Supreme Court.
“We feel that by-election is required in at least eight constituencies. As such, we wanted to request the ECI to conduct by-elections for maximum seats lying vacant in this opportune moment,” said Biren.
The chief minister was speaking to the media on the sideline of the floral tributes to the statue of Hijam Irawat at Irawat Square, Lilashing Khongnangkhong, Thangmeiband.
The ECI on Tuesday announced the scheduled for by-election in only two assembly constituencies on November 7.
The Manipur Legislative Assembly has now an effective strength of 47 legislators with 13 clear vacancies. In the first instance, seven seats were declared vacant after disqualification of four Congress MLAs and three BJP legislators whose resignations were accepted by the Speaker.
The four Congress MLAs were Th Shyamkumar of Andro, Ksh Biren of Lamlai, S Bira of Kumbi and Y Surchandra of Kakching assembly constituency while the three BJP legislators whose resignations were accepted are Samuel Jendai of Tamenglong, TT Haokip of Henglep and S Subhaschandra of Naoriya Pakhanglakpa assembly constituency. This happened just before the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections, in which the BJP nominee Leishemba Sanajaoba got elected from the lone Manipur seat in the Upper House.
