EC backs one candidate, one seat
REVAMP Says a person shouldn’t be allowed to contest from more than one seat at a time
NEWDELHI: The Election Commission of India (ECI) has supported a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a ban on candidates contesting elections for two Lok Sabha or state assembly seats simultaneously.
In an affidavit filed in the top court, the ECI unequivocally stated that the “Commission is of the view that the law should be amended to provide that a person cannot contest from more than one constituency at a time.”
“In case the legislature is of the view that the present law should be retained, then there should be an express provision requiring a person who contests and wins elections from two seats resulting in a bye election to deposit in the government account an appropriate amount of money being the expenditure for holding the bye elections.”
The poll watchdog had in 2004 estimated this amount to be paid by candidates at ₹5 lakh for an assembly election and ₹10 lakh for an election to the Lok Sabha. The estimates, as well as the recommendation that candidates not be allowed to contest two seats were part of 22 proposals on electoral reforms sent by the ECI to the central government in 2004. The government then referred the proposals to a parliamentary standing committee.
The petition in the Supreme Court has been filed by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) spokesperson and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who has sought to declare as invalid section 33(7) of the Representation of the People (RP) Act, which allows a person to contest two seats at the same time.
ECI, in its affidavit, said that the parliamentary panel which looked into its 2004 suggestion was in favour of allowing candidates to contest two constituencies.
The poll panel also cited the 255th report of the Law Commission of India, which favoured an amendment to section 33(7) to permit a candidate to contest only seat on grounds that allowing them to stand for election to seats caused unnecessary expenditure and effort as well as election fatigue and harassment to voters.
Attorney general of India KK Venugopal has agreed to assist the Supreme Court on the petition.
In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, six candidates including Prime minister Narendra Modi contested from more than one seat. Of these, only Modi and Mulayam Singh Yadav won the elections; the other four lost, from both seats.
Jagdeep Chhokar of association for democratic reforms, an election watchdog said: “Candidates should not be allowed to contest from more than one seat, because this is not a question of shopping for seats. They must seek election from places where they have done something and think they deserve to be elected.”