Jharkhand assembly poll soon, government tells apex court
New Delhi, Oct 19 : The union government Monday informed the Supreme Court that the elections for Jharkhand assembly, which has been kept in suspended animation since imposition of President's Rule last December, will be held soon.
Attorney General G. E. Vahanvati told a bench of Chief Justice K. G. Balakrishnan and Justice B. S. Chauhan that he had spoken to the chief election commissioner on the issue of Jharkhand assembly polls and was told that the election dates would be notified soon.
Vahanvati apprised the court of the poll panel's plan to hold the election shortly during the hearing of a lawsuit by Jharkhand unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), demanding dissolution of the state assembly and holding of the assembly polls at the earliest.
Appearing for the BJP's Jharkhand unit, senior counsel Ajit Kumar Sinha questioned Vahanvati's claim pointing out that election dates cannot be notified unless the state assembly was dissolved.
He said the union government was deliberately keeping the assembly under suspended animation rather than dissolving it to ensure that elections could not be conducted at the earliest.
The bench, however, issued no orders on the lawsuit and adjourned its next hearing to a fortnight later.
The petition filed by BJP's state unit spokesman Sanjay Seth sought a direction to the central government to immediately dissolve the assembly and simultaneously announce the assembly elections.
Sinha had earlier complained that assembly elections were announced for Maharashtra, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh before schedule but Jharkhand was deliberately left out.
BJP has alleged in its lawsuit that the state assembly has been kept in suspended animation for the last eight months without any valid reason and despite assurance given by Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in parliament that election would be conducted after monsoon.
But the government has issued a fresh notification and extended the President's Rule till December 2009.
The house was kept under suspended animation after Shibu Soren resigned as chief minister after losing the assembly bye-election and there was no clear majority for any political party or coalition.(IANS)