Poll reforms after Assembly elections: Khurshid

Declaring that the goverment is committed to decriminalising the electoral system, Law Minister Salman Khurshid today said far-reaching electoral reforms are on the anvil after the coming Assembly polls.

"The Chief Election Commissioner is asking the government to step in to clean up the system.... We will do as soon as the elections in five states are over," he said.

He said the government was committed to decriminalising the system at a time when Indian politics is passing through a "difficult times".

Noting that the government was so far "preoccupied" with the Lok Pal Bill, Khurshid hoped that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would get the support of all in the task of electoral reforms.

The minister's statement comes close on the heels of the Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi's remarks that government may not have been able to table a bill on electoral reforms in the just-concluded session of Parliament, due to its pre-occupation with other issues he expected the law ministry to keep its promise in the next session.

On the controversy over the admission of controversial former UP Minister Babu Singh Kushwaha by the BJP, he said that the Congress was doing its best to try to avoid any such mistakes.

"Given the ground realities, it is an absolute minefield there. We are doing our best that we do not step on a minefield."