: Advocating the concept of simultaneous polls, Union Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu on Saturday said frequent elections resulted in high costs of electioneering and diversion of interests from key issues of governance.
Speaking at the ‘One Nation, One Election’ symposium organised by the India Foundation, Mr. Prabhu said frequent elections caused hindrances in policy implementation due to the Model Code of Conduct.
Former Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) S.Y. Quraishi said simultaneous elections was a beautiful concept flagged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr. Quraishi said the issue should be debated to develop a roadmap. In the meantime, he offered an alternative route of electoral reforms, particularly putting an expense limit on parties as well, as it happens in most countries, and also reducing the ceiling on limits for both the parties and the candidates. The former CEC said that if the government provides adequate logistics and security forces, the Commission can hold simultaneous elections in 33 days.
“After demonetisation, which intends to attack black money, people have started talking about simultaneous elections. It is also well known that elections are the fountainhead of black money,” he said.
