BENGALURU: After its candidate decided to retire from the contest just two days before the polls, the BJP has urged the Election Commission (EC) to postpone Saturday’s bypoll in Ramanagara so that it can field another candidate.
The EC has, however, decided to go ahead with the polling. Legal experts are of the view that candidate retiring from contest after last date of withdrawal of nominations is like making mockery of election processes and there is a need for stringent provisions in law to prevent such instances in future.
“It is a very sad state of affairs. You should make a law to punish such persons so that they will not be eligible for contesting elections for one or two terms,” said former Supreme Court Judge Justice Santosh Hegde.
“We need such a law as you cannot make mockery of election procedure,” said Justice Hegde. Former Judge of Karnataka High Court Justice M F Saldanha said, “Representation of People’s Act requires to be amended and we have to have a set of very stringent provisions.”BJP candidate L Chandrashekar on Thursday announced that he is retiring from contest and joined the Congress. He had joined BJP after the bypolls were announced.