TRS, the ruling party in Telangana, has come out in support of the Centre’s proposal to hold simultaneous elections in the country.
Earlier this year, the Law Commission had invited all national and state parties to hold consultations on the issue, sparking intense debate across the country. The Commission has prepared a draft paper titled "Simultaneous Elections - Constitutional and Legal Perspectives" and has sought opinions of "all stakeholders" including political parties, constitutional experts, bureaucrats, academia, among others. It will then finalise its report and send it to the government.
In a letter to Law Commission Chairman Justice BS Chauhan, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said, “We all know that four to six months of time is being spent in conducting elections each time to the Lok Sabha and the State Legislatures. The entire State and District level administrative and security machinery is very busy with conduct of elections twice in a period of five years as per the current practice."
“Likewise, imposition of model code of conduct for such a long period is also hampering development and welfare activities being undertaken by the state government. Further, huge amount of money – public money as well as of the political parties and candidates - is being spent twice in a period of five years, if elections are not held simultaneously,” KCR pointed out in his letter.
“In the above backdrop, our party i.e. the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) is strongly in favour of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Legislative Assemblies,” KCR said.
Stating that he was busy with pre-scheduled engagements, the Telangana CM said that he was deputing Karimnagar MP B Vinod Kumar on his behalf to participate in the discussions in New Delhi.
This also comes a day after the ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh said that conducting simultaneous polls would weaken leaders of regional parties across the country. In a statement, Andhra Finance Minister Yanamala Ramakrishnudu said, "Simultaneous polls are a move to weaken regional leaders. No national party is in a position to form government at the Centre on its own and support of regional parties has become mandatory. Strengthening of regional parties has become a big obstacle for national parties."
However, opposition parties have generally dismissed the suggestion mooted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as an alleged ploy by him to divert attention from other, more important, issues.
With IANS inputs