India News | Bills on Simultaneous Polls to Ensure Political Stability, Country's Progress: NDA Leaders
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders including Union ministers asserted on Tuesday that the bills on holding simultaneous polls have been brought to ensure "political stability" in the country and not to take away any of the rights of the state legislatures or the governments.
New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders including Union ministers asserted on Tuesday that the bills on holding simultaneous polls have been brought to ensure "political stability" in the country and not to take away any of the rights of the state legislatures or the governments.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved in the Lok Sabha two bills which lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous polls in the country, with the opposition dubbing the draft laws as an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution and the federal structure of the country.
Senior BJP leader and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called moving of the two bills a "historic day" and said the issue of holding simultaneous polls in the country had been pending for over two decades despite the Election Commission, Law Commission and political thinkers recommending it several times.
"It came time and again that elections should be held once (in five years) for political stability in the country," Prasad told reporters in Parliament complex.
"At present, the country is always revolving around the cycle of elections," he added.
The BJP leader rejected as "baseless and illogical" the opposition charge that the bills on the simultaneous polls is an attack on the federal structure of the country.
"This is not in the least violation of federal principle," he said, asking, "What do they mean? State assembly polls will not be held? Their governments will not be formed?"
There is no logic in their argument, he added.
On the Congress saying that the voting on the bills at the introduction stage in the Lok Sabha showed the ruling BJP lacks the two-thirds majority required to pass a constitutional amendment, Prasad said, "What can I do if someone doesn't understand the Constitution."
"A two-thirds majority will be required at the time of the passage of the bills (in Parliament)... We do have (the adequate numbers). We will show by doing it. A lot of things (bills) have been passed," he said.
Union minister Pralhad Joshi said the two bills on simultaneous polls have been brought "in the best interest of the country and its progress", and accused the opposition parties of "misleading" the country on the proposed law.
Elections were held simultaneously for several years in the past but this changed after the Congress caught the "disease" of misusing the provisions of the Constitution and dissolved the legislative assemblies in the states ruled by other parties, he alleged.
"The Election Commission and the Law Commission have recommended it (simultaneous polls) again and again. It is in the best interest of the country," he told reporters in Parliament complex.
The minister called upon all the political parties to come forth with suggestions and support the two bills in Parliament.
"Raising objections to the bills just to oppose it is not right," he said, asking the opposition parties, "Are we curtailing the powers of the state legislative assemblies or the state governments?"
"Simultaneous polls will be held and your rights will remain intact with you… Why are you misleading? Issue of the federal structure comes when we violate any of the rights of the states," the minister added.
Union Minister and senior JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh asserted that the two bills are neither unconstitutional "in any manner" nor any attack on the federal structure of the country.
He said simultaneous elections were held in the country in the past.
This chain was broken and mid-term polls started happening with dissolution of state assemblies and fall of the state governments, the minister said.
"It's (the bills on simultaneous polls) not unconstitutional in any manner. There is no attack on the federal structure anywhere. It's the Constitution which vests into Parliament power to amend it," Singh told PTI in Parliament complex.
The passage of the two bills on simultaneous polls will put a curb on the electoral malpractices like leaders switching sides, he added.
Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) chief Chirag Paswan supported the bills and said holding simultaneous polls is "necessary" for keeping up the pace of development in the country.
"Parliament should respect the feelings of the country. The entire country, especially youth, wants it. We do not want elections happening in the country in every two months," he told reporters in Parliament complex.
Paswan also rejected the opposition's contention that the bills will finish the regional parties if passed, saying the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) won the state assembly elections which were held in Andhra Pradesh simultaneously with the Lok Sabha.
The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha by Meghwal after a nearly 90-minute debate, followed by a division of votes. As many as 269 members voted in favour of the Bill and 198 against it.
Meghwal also introduced The Union Territories Amendment Bill, which seeks to align elections in the Union territories of Puducherry, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir with the Lok Sabha polls.
He said the proposed bills did not attack the "basic structure doctrine, as claimed by the opposition".
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)