EC to seek law ministry’s suggestion on poll spends
Suggestions were received by poll panel during allparty meeting held in August
NEWDELHI: In the wake of demands from political parties to find ways to increase the participation of women either voluntarily or through legislation in electoral politics, and to impose a limit on spending by political parties during campaigns, the election commission (EC) will soon write to the Union law ministry seeking directions to address these issues, officials aware of the developments said.
These suggestions were received at an all-party meeting held in August, and will first be discussed at a meeting of the commission in the coming week, the officials said. They, however, added that another demand for returning to ballot papers rather than using EVMs has been rejected outright by the poll panel. The demand for increasing the participation of women was backed by most of the parties, including the Samajwadi Party (SP) which in the past opposed 33% reservation for women in Parliament and state assemblies for 15 years. The party has now supported the move with a caveat - it has told the commission that while it is opposed to the women’s reservation bill that was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2010, it supports the demand for reservation for women through other means. “The party has not made any recommendation on the issue, but a few others suggested reserving a constituency for women candidates,” said an EC official who asked not to be named. The Lok Sabha never voted on the bill, which lapsed after the dissolution of the 15th Lok Sabha in 2014.
SP spokesperson Rajesh Dikshit said: “The EC should make provisions for increasing women’s participation. When parties are in Opposition, they say one thing, but there has been no consensus on the issue.”
On whether the reserving a constituency for women will be acceptable to parties and will serve the purpose of increasing women’s participation, D Raja of the Communist Part of India said: “As of now, it is hypothetical. We can’t say how this will pan out. So far, constituencies are reserved only on the basis of caste, doing so for women would also require a change in rules.”
A second official said on condition of anonymity that parties such as the Trinamool Congress, SP, Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left parties urged the commission to look at the existing provisions which place no limit on spending by a political party on election campaigns, saying it disturbs the level playing field.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and the AIADMK, however, are opposed to the suggestion of imposing limits to how much a party can spend during elections.At present, the poll panel imposes a cap on the campaign expenditure incurred by candidates alone -- varying between ₹50- 70 lakh for LS seats and between ₹20 lakh to ₹28 lakh for the assembly constituencies. Details of these expenses are mandatorily submitted to EC within 30 days of the declaration of results.BSP spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria said his party has proposed a cap to ensure that “bigger parties” do not use “money and muscle to influence elections”.