Chandigarh(The Stellar News): This past Sunday, May 15, Dr. Manik Saha was sworn in as new Chief Minister of Tripura months before the next General Elections to State Assembly are due in Feb-Mar 2013. The very next day on May 16, Saha inducted 11 Ministers in his Cabinet/Council of Ministers. Manik Saha, who is State BJP President was elected to Council of States (Rajya Sabha) from Tripura in March this year and his six years tenure should have been till April, 2028. However, since he has assumed reins of power as Chief Minister of Tripura, hence he would have to resign from membership of Rajya Sabha anytime soon. Meanwhile, an Advocate at Punjab and Haryana High Court, Hemant Kumar, asserts that since Saha is currently not a member of Tripura Legislative Assembly, so he would have to be elected as MLA before November 15, 2022 in view of Article 164 (4) of Constitution of India which stipulates that a Minister (which includes Chief Minister) who for any period of six consecutive months is not a member of the Legislature of the State shall be the expiration of that period cease to be a Minister (CM).Now there is a catch here.
Hemant says that although as on date, there are 5 vacancies in 60 member Tripura Assembly where bye-election(s) can be conducted for facilitating Saha to become a MLA but since Section 151A of Representation of the People Act, 1951 stipulates that bye-election to casual vacancy can be conducted by Election Commission of India (ECI) within a period of six months from the date of occurrence of the vacancy however there is rider that such bye-poll shall not be conducted if the remainder of the term of a member in relation to a vacancy is less than one year. The current 12th Tripura Assembly was constituted on March 23, 2018, so its five year tenure is till March 22, 2023 i.e. only 10 months later which nevertheless is less than period of one year.
Amidst all this, uncertainty prevails upon the fate of new Manik Saha over how he would be able to get elected as member of Legislature of the Tripura State before Nov 15, 2022. Pertinent there is no Legislative Council in Tripura as is the case in half a dozen States in India. Hemant recalls that similar sort of situation arose last year in State of Uttarakhand too when then Chief Minister, Tirath Singh Rawat, who although being sitting Lok Sabha MP from Garhwal Parliamentary Constituency was sworn is as State CM on March 10, 2021 but since it was not possible for ECI to hold bye-election on any vacant Assembly Seat during then existing fourth Uttarakhand Legislative Assembly due to then prevailing COVID-19 Pandemic and other factors and since Uttarakhand too has not got any Legislative Council, hence it was not going to be possible for Rawat to get himself elected as MLA of then Uttarakhand Assembly before Sep 10, 2021. therefore he resigned two months ahead on July 4, 2021 and consequently Pushkar Singh Dhami, who was already a member of then Uttarakhand Assembly, was made new Chief Minister.
Interestingly, though Dhami lost in recent Uttarakhand Assembly General Elections in Mar, 2022, still he was sworn in as CM on Mar 23, 2022. However, he is contesting bye-election from Champawat Assembly Seat scheduled for 31 May 2022 and it is hoped he would be able to win that bye-poll and get himself elected as MLA of current 5th Uttarakhand Assembly on June 3, 2022, the day of counting.
