One Constituency One Candidate The Representation of Peoples Act 1951 does not place any bar on a candidate contesting from more than one constituency in the Lok Sabha elections. This was witnessed in the just concluded elections too. Narendra Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav are two prominent leaders who chose to do just that. These two, won four seats between them. You ask people to vote for you and when they do, you tell them you do not want to represent them. You are actually ditching them – an insult if you ask me. It may be too harsh to say that it is a mockery of those who support you. One seat is required to be surrendered necessitating a by-election which will involve huge expenses for going through the exercise all over again. All the candidates in the reelection will have to incur a lot of expenses for campaigning and other incidentals. Is this fair? Modi chose to give up his Baroda seat which he won with record breaking margin. Retaining Varanasi was a well considered move since it is the seat of Hindu religion. He has a bigger stake there to finally wrest the State from the Samajwadi Party in the next State elections. This dual candidature thing needs to be revisited for suitable change. Actually, only those genuinely residing in the constituency [like Rajya Sabha ] should qualify to contest. Who would know the problems of the area better than a bonafide resident? By the way, can we have some basic educational qualifications too? Why does one have to stand from two constituencies in the first place? Is the leader so insecure, lacking confidence? If so, he should not stand for elections in the first place. He is depriving a genuine local leader [from his party] from contesting. This goes against the basic spirit of democracy. State funding is one issue that is being debated for years with no tangible proposal being put forward to start a national debate on this very important subject. Money power has contaminated the entire election process. The BJP always taunted the UPA for not taking the initiative on the subject. Now that they are in power and with a handsome majority, let them start the process. If they fail to do that,
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VIEWS on NEWS it will mean that they too are not really serious about the issue. With hundreds of crores ‘coming’ [really?] to the big parties in accounted form [only above Rs 20000 declared] they are at an advantage. It is necessary to make it compulsory to disclose the names of all donors above Rs 1000. As it stands now, these funds are highly suspect and there is a lot of substance in this suspicion. No wonder, political parties are unwilling to come under the RTI Act. Expenses incurred by a political party for its candidate are not clubbed with what the candidate himself spends on election campaign. This loophole is exploited to far exceed the ceiling fixed by the Election Commission [EC]. Independent candidates are at a disadvantage. There is no level playing field for them. No wonder ‘Independents’ are a dwindling species of late. This anomaly needs to be set in order in all fairness. Pending public funding of elections, we can have a modified version of it to begin with. As it is, Corporates are allowed to donate funds to political parties legally which can continue. In the coming budget, allow Corporates as well as individuals to donate funds to the Election Commission and allow 100% tax exemption for such contributions with a ceiling, if necessary. These funds can be utilized by the EC to conduct the elections which are a huge burden on the exchequer otherwise. *****
Pawar – The Shrewdest Politician It will not be an exaggeration to say that if there is one politician who can be safely termed as the shrewdest guy in the business; it must undoubtedly be Sharad Pawar of the NCP. He has been in politics for decades and has the uncanny knack of visualizing the future. Once he is sure of the likely turn of events, he shifts his gears accordingly to suit the given situation. He has a back up plan as well in case things do not go as expected. He was the first man to declare that he is out of the electoral politics but would like to be in the loop via the Rajya Sabha route to keep that remote option
by Marshall Sequeira of a possible third front which he could possibly lead if there was no consensus. Once Manmohan Singh opted out of the race for Prime Ministership, Pawar knew what he had to do. If the UPA came to power [miraculously, if at all] Rahul Gandhi would be the choice for PM and he did not want to work under him having called him immature. Besides Pawar is too senior a man to work under him. Alternately, with NDA winning, the post of Leader of Opposition [LOP] would naturally go to Rahul Gandhi. Again in that case, Pawar would have been ‘technically’ under Rahul. Rajya Sabha was therefore a safer option. If Pawar was really unhappy with the Congress, why did he stick with the UPA? He cannot win anything on his own. He needs props but at the same time is not comfortable in being subservient. Pawar is a spent force and with his MPs fitting in a Nano, his clout is over. After the election results were out, he was quick to blame the Congress for all the ills. He complained that the coalition partners were not given importance and all decisions were taken without consultation. By saying so, he admits that NCP role in the coalition was only ornamental. This is a clever ploy. NCP does this every time it loses. The State elections are coming close and it needs a handle to negotiate [or even blackmail] when it comes to seat sharing. This, NCP did before the general elections too. It is reported that Sharad Pawar may be projected as CM to counter the two Senas. It is like someone aspiring to take over as a CMD of a Corporate agrees to settle for a Branch Manager’s position. That would be a sad day for a man of his stature and political astuteness. Maybe he feels something is better than nothing. Perhaps the move is aimed at pre-empting Ajit Pawar. But in all probability, Ajit Pawar will take control and edge out both his uncle and his daughter - Supriya Sule.
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