Swamy backs simultaneous elections

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Subramanian Swamy on Sunday backed the idea of having simultaneous elections in the country while saying that it was up to opposition parties whether they wanted to support it or not.

The Law Commission of India is holding a two-day meeting to with political parties to discuss the prospects of holding simultaneous elections in the nation. The meeting is scheduled to be attended by as many as 14 parties, with the Congress and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) likely to be among the absentees.

Swamy told ANI, "It is up to Congress and the CPI-M. Whether we should have it or not, of course, it is a very good objective. Why waste money on an annual basis on one election or another, every election has become a national election and the Prime Minister has to go and address the meetings and all."

However, Swamy was of the opinion that there are some loopholes that need to be filled.

"If a Government falls, and it is voted out on a no-confidence motion, then nobody else can form the government. Like what happened with Mr Vajpayee's government which fell in 1999, so there had to be a midterm poll. The same thing happened with Mr Gujral's government, it fell so there had to be a Lok Sabha election. Midterm elections are very expensive and very painful," he said.

"Germany has found a solution to this problem. They say that the party that moves the no-confidence motion, it is their job to produce the majority otherwise the ruling party that they brought down will continue in office," he added.

Swamy, however, asserted that to have a simultaneous polling by 2019 will not be feasible and that the idea of one election should be implemented by 2024.

Sharing his thoughts on Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment, wherein he said that many people were calling the Congress a 'bail-gaadi' as many of its prominent leaders were out on bail, Swamy said, "It is a wonderful comment. It explicitly brings out the corrupt nature of the Congress party."

In April, the Law Commission had stated that simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies could be held in two phases from 2019, provided that at least two provisions of the Constitution are amended and ratified by a majority of the states.