31.3.16

Of synchronizing Polls countrywide....

The Narendra Modi government is keen on having simultaneous elections in the country , it is learnt. The prime minister himself mooted this proposal, which was raised by party veteran L K Advani earlier, to hold simultaneous elections with state assemblies and Parliament. Modi's idea includes holding panchayat and civic polls on the same schedule.
This was conveyed to BJP office-bearers at a meeting ahead of the party conclave earlier this month. Modi had made the suggestion at an all-party meeting in February, ahead of the budget session of Parliament and it had got a positive response from even the opposition, BJP sources said.
The PM told BJP office-bearers that in view of frequent elections, to Lok Sabha, assemblies and panchayats, party workers got involved in political work rather than social work. He also said the recurrent process of elections caused delay in welfare schemes reaching the people. Though sources said it was conveyed that there was political consensus on synchronising elections, the government is unsure of the opposition's reaction once a proposal is put on the table.
In the past, a similar recommendation was made by Advani, who had said being on perpetual election mode was “not good for governance or for the polity“.
In a blog in 2012, Advani had appealed to the President to take the initiative on poll reforms, including a fixed tenure for Lok Sabha and state assemblies and synchronising polls, as it was till 1967.
In 1971, the then PM Indira Gandhi had dissolved Lok Sabha ahead of schedule, changing the timing of the general polls. Similarly , assemblies also went to polls at different times because of governments dissolving them.




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