Cabinet to decide council poll date today

SHILLONG: The State cabinet will finalise the date for holding bypolls to seven vacant district council seats on Tuesday.
The seats, six in KHADC and one in JHADC, fell vacant following the resignation of seven legislators who were MDCs after the Dual Post Bill was passed by the government with effect from October 1 last year.
Sources said on Monday that after the file related to bypoll date was sent to the Governor following the High Court order, the Governor posed some queries on the date of polls fixed by the government.
The High Court had rejected December 13 as the poll date fixed by the government and filed in the form of an affidavit in the court last week.
The cabinet will examine the comments of the Governor on Tuesday before finalising the poll date.
When contacted to know whether the MLAs can contest the polls, District Council Affairs Minister Prestone Tynsong said it was left to the wisdom of the legislators on whether they wanted to contest the bypolls following the High Court order, which upheld the order of the Governor that the post in district councils does not attract disqualification as it is not an office of profit.