Hyderabad: With Telangana Assembly Speaker P. Srinivas Reddy wasting no time in accepting the resignation of Munugode MLA Komatireddy Rajgopal Reddy on Monday, all eyes are now on the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the timing of the bypoll.
The bypoll in all likelihood will be held along with Assembly elections to Himachal Pradesh which are due in November. Official sources told this correspondent that the chances of holding a bypoll before November were bleak as the ECI had completed bypolls to 10 seats across the country only in May last and it was unlikely that there would be a standalone bypoll for Munugode.
Earlier in the day, Rajgopal Reddy met the Speaker and put in his papers. Within hours the Speaker’s office announced that Srinivas Reddy had accepted the resignation. Accordingly, the Assembly Secretariat informed the ECI about the vacancy.
“Normally, the ECI explores two scenarios for holding bypolls. Either it will club them with bypolls of other states or the Lok Sabha or with assembly polls to states or general elections to the Lok Sabha that are due in the next six months,” a senior official said.
ECI sources said the election process for Himachal Pradesh would begin in October, which is just two months away. Even the Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership was said to be in no mood to push for an early election in Munugode and Rajgopal Reddy was said to have been hinted about the November timeline.
In Huzurabad also, former minister Etala Rajendar had tendered his resignation to the Assembly on June 12, 2021, which was also immediately accepted. But, the ECI clubbed the Huzurabad bypoll with those to 19 other Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha constituencies around the country. As it is, a bypoll is a very expensive affair and the delay is expected to prove costlier to the contestants in particular the ruling party and Rajgopal Reddy.
