Wayanad or Rae Bareli? Rahul Gandhi Has 10 days to Decide

As per norms, an MP holding more than one seat will have to resign from the other constituency within June 18. Thus, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is presently MP from Rae Bareli and Wayanad, can retain either of the two seats.

Hyderabad:After securing a massive victory in both Wayanad and Rae Bareli, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi now has to decide which seat he would retain. Not only Congress workers but even his political opponents are eagerly waiting for this decision.

He had won Wayanad by a margin of over 3.6 lakh votes and Rae Bareil by a margin of over 3.9 lakh votes. According to Constitutional and parliamentary experts, the suspense cannot last for a long time and as per the norms, he has to take a decision within a stipulated time period.

"Rahul Gandhi was elected as a Lok Sabha member from Wayanad and Rae Bareilly on June 4. After receiving the certificate from the Electoral Officer, he has become a Member of Parliament from these two constituencies. But according to our Constitution, a person cannot hold the position of MP from two constituencies simultaneously. He has to vacate one of the two constituencies within 14 days after declaration of election results. Since he was elected on June 4, he will have to resign from any seat by June 18. The Election Commission will conduct a by-poll in the vacated seat within six months, to find a new MP," former Lok Sabha secretary PDT Achari told ETV Bharat.

Even if he has time till June 18, Gandhi cannot wait till then as the Lok Sabha session will convene before that. After the 18th Lok Sabha elections, the new government will be sworn in on Sunday.

The first agenda of the cabinet is to decide the date for convening the Lok Sabha. Once the date is decided, a notification will be sent to all the elected MPs from the Lok Sabha Secretariat.

The first order of business when the House meets under the chairmanship of the pro-tem Speaker is the oath of office of the members. Prior to which, the Lok Sabha Secretariat will have to be informed about the constituencies of the respective MPs.

Achari said Speaker has a crucial role to play in the 18th Lok Sabha, where there are several smaller parties with more than one MP and the government has a slim majority. The possibility of political parties splitting and merging with other parties cannot be ruled out but the Speaker cannot approve such mergers without the approval of the national president of the respective political party. Achari said that only if there is a letter from the concerned political party president, the members who have split can be exempted from disqualification.

Read more