Patna, July 6: The Election Commission (EC) today said polls to the 24 seats of Bihar Legislative Council will be held tomorrow as scheduled in the light of the Supreme Court refusing to stay the exercise.
Additional chief electoral officer of Bihar, R. Lakshmanan said: "We are holding the MLC elections as per schedule tomorrow. The EC is issuing a direction to all candidates that their tenure will be affected by whatever decision the SC takes in the case. The court accepted the EC's suggestion that tenure of the elected members be decided by draw of lots."
He added that the SC order was an interim one and the final decision could impact the candidates elected in these polls.
A total of 152 candidates are in the fray, whose fate would be decided by 13,38,904 electorate.
A total of 534 polling stations have been set up for the purpose. The polling would be held between 8am and 4pm, while the counting of votes would take place on July 10, the additional CEO said.
He said for the first time the electoral rolls with the photographs of the voters are being used in the poll. In addition, the ballot papers would have the photographs of the candidates, which would help the voters easily identity the candidates of their choice.
The Election Commission has made arrangements for live webcast of the poll process. Micro-observers have been deployed and arrangements have been made for videography at all the polling booths.
To a query, the additional CEO said so far no complaint of misuse of money by any candidate has been received. "Till date, 15 cases of violation of the model code of conduct have been lodged in the state and action would be taken according to the provisions of the Election Commission," he added.
The security forces seized 13 country-made pistols, five desi kattas, 142 cartridges, two cylinder bombs, 16 magazines, seven motorbikes, 1,420 litres of illicit liquor, 6kg marijuana and Rs 4,300 cash during operation.
The legal impasse had arisen out of a Patna High Court verdict fixing the tenures of two, four and six years to one-third council members out of a total of 24.
The Bihar Legislative Council, in its appeal, had said that earlier, one-third members of the 24-member Bihar Legislative Council, a permanent house like the Rajya Sabha, used to retire after every two years. "However, from 1978 to 2002, elections to local bodies were not conducted in Bihar and hence, all 24 seats remained vacant. Ultimately, when the local bodies' elections took place in 2003, the members of the Legislative Council were also duly elected and appointed for a term of six years from July 17, 2003, as there was no law enacted by Parliament curtailing their term.
"It is pertinent to note that the term of the candidates elected in 2009 is due to expire on July 7, 2015," the plea said.
The high court, in an order on a PIL, had said to ensure statutory compliance, the election to the legislative body be conducted in such a manner that one-third each of the members would have two-, four- and six-year tenures respectively.
The Bihar Legislative Council, in its plea, had claimed that the high court "interfered with the electoral process of the Legislative Council of the state and passed directions in a purported PIL that are unsupported by the law in this regard as it now stands."
Referring to constitutional and statutory provisions, it said the state legislative council was a "continuous body not subject to dissolution" and the elected members' term of office was for a period of six years. The high court "erroneously assumed" that by changing the pattern of the poll process by dividing the total number of seats into three sets, it was not interfering with the election process, expressly barred under Article 329 of the Constitution, the plea claimed.
"The impugned directions of delineation and earmarking of new constituencies, curtailment of term of certain sections of members, etc is clearly an interference in the electoral process not permissible under Article 329," the council had said in its plea.
