The loud thinking by the Centre over conduct of concurrent elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies as a solution to bring down election expenditure and avoid disruption to governance due to frequent elections in one State or the other did not hold water with the speakers at a round table here on Friday.
Mana Rajyam, a platform for social and political movement, organised the round table with representatives from various sections from both the Telugu States.
Most of the speakers agreed that reforms in electoral system, proportional representation system in elections, strengthening anti-defection law should get priority than holding simultaneous elections.
Imposing ideas
CPI AP secretary Ramakrishna, Political analyst Lakshminarayana, and AP Intellectuals Forum leader Ch. Srinivas said it was an attempt to impose the BJP and RSS thought process on the nation.
It was a fascist tendency to ride roughshod over the States.
Former minister M.V. Mysoora Reddy however felt simultaneous elections might bring down election expenditure but strict enforcement of People’s Representation Act was equally important. It is the Election Commission than the political parties that should spend money on elections. When party candidates personally spent crores of rupees to win an election, corruption would continue to thrive at the Centre as well as in States, he added.
Political diversity
Former MLC Nageshwar, debunking the proposed simultaneous elections for curbing poll expenditure, said it was a ploy by Modi government to kill political diversity and bring in artificial homogeneity in a socially and culturally diverse country. It was wrong to control flaws in a democratic system through undemocratic means, he said.
Congress leader N. Tulasi Reddy, senior journalist and analyst Telkapalli Ravi and educationist Chukka Ramaiah spoke.
