Vice-President urges parties to consider simultaneous polls

Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday urged political parties to consider the option of conducting simultaneous assembly and Parliamentary polls and evolve a consensus.

"I urge upon the political parties to seriously consider the option of simultaneous polls and evolve a consensus," he said.

Naidu was addressing the inaugural session of a conference on 'Indian Democracy at Work' - 'Money Power in Politics' at the Indian School of Business here.

Simultaneous elections would bring the cost of holding the elections down by the Election Commission and avoid frequent diversion of attention of parties and the people, he said.

The government officials also have a responsibility, other than their original responsibility of providing governance and improving delivery systems due to frequent elections, he said.

Expressing concern over populist promises being made by political parties without taking the availability of finances into consideration, he asked if a legislation like the FRBM Act can be made to address the issue.

"Can we legislate that before making promises you must have adequate finances. Can we think of something like FRBM (Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management) Act... Can we think about something like that in the states," he said.

The two-day conference is being co-organised by Foundation for Democratic Reforms, Indian School of Business, University of Hyderabad.