
Resignation Politics
The Speaker's questionable delay cannot be accidental. One cannot be oblivious to the possible political machinations behind avoiding by-elections as per law. This delayed decision of the Speaker gives credence to the criticism that the YSR Congress has a clandestine understanding with the BJP. In fact, there was more than one-and-a-half months time for the Speaker to accept the resignations so that the by elections could be held.
The Section 151A: Time limit for filling vacancies: a bye-election for filling any vacancy shall be held within a period of six months from the date of the occurrence of the vacancy: Provided that nothing contained in this section shall apply if: (a) the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is less than one year...
The Speaker should have considered the apex court judgements to speedily act on the resignations. The Supreme Court in Election Commission of India Vs Bajrang Bahadur Sing (2015) said, "The question, therefore, is as to how to reconcile the two apparently conflicting constitutional obligations...(Para 69)".
The first one is the Speaker's obligation to decide on the resignation submitted by the members. The second is the Election Commission's obligation to hold the election within a period of six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy.
Why did the Speaker act so? There can be two possible explanations for this.
Though, the office of Speaker is a politically neutral one, everyone knows that the reality is not so. Speakers and Governors act in the interests of the party they belonged to before occupying those august offices.
The second possible explanation is that the BJP has to contest these five seats if by-elections are held. In fact, in alliance with TDP, the BJP contested in the two of these five seats in 2014. Thus, the by-elections would expose the real strength of BJP in the state. The political trend is quite obvious. The BJP would be decimated in all these five seats if by-elections are held. The BJP cannot welcome such a humiliation in the run-up to 2019 elections that would have an implication for the national politics.
The YSR Congress wants the TDP also to seek the resignations of its MPs to send united message to the Centre. However, TDP maintains that resignations do not yield any advantage and its MPs would continue to fight while remaining in office. But, TDP which initially said that no-confidence motion is only a last resort, was compelled to first support YSR Congress motion and later moved its own motion. The TDP earlier disowned the demand for Special Status when the Centre offered Special Package in lieu of it. But, the party had to retreat and reiterate the Special Status demand as the opposition persisted on it.
In fact, byelections would have precipitated fresh round of political war between TDP and YSR Congress. Now, the resignation episode may end up as campaign scoring points only for YSR Congress as there will not be any by-elections.