Basic poll-reforms urgently necessary
Successive central governments have been deferring long-awaited poll-reforms for so many decades in name of never-to-be achieved political consensus with reports of so many committees and commissions set up high costs gathering dust without any action. Even repeated recommendations by successive Chief Election Commissioners are not being implemented. Poll-reforms that could be possible were only because of Supreme Court directions.
At least some basic poll-reforms which do not generate controversy must be implemented before next Lok Sabha elections if necessary through an ordinance. A person must not be allowed to contest simultaneously from more than one constituency or for both Lok Sabha and state-assembly. Rather a sitting MP or MLA must resign from the earlier seat before being allowed to file nomination for the other House. It is political sin to waste hard-earned money of tax-payers in unnecessary by-elections caused due to a person winning from more than one constituency or for both Lok Sabha and state-assembly because the law does not permit a person to represent more than one constituency or in both Lok Sabha and state-assembly.
Subhash Chandra Agrawal
Hub of crime
Andheri railway station is the hub of crime on the Western Railway. Maximum numbers of offenders have been caught for crimes here. This includes trespassing, hawking, creating nuisance at station premises, etc.
Statistics given by the Western Railway’s Railway Protection Force (RPF) shows that Andheri is the crime capital of Mumbai. This station tops in all categories of crime, including trespassing, hawking, creating nuisance at station premises, unauthorised travelling in ladies coaches etc.
Jubel D’Cruz
The recent seat sharing arrangement between SP and BSP by keeping out Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections has taken all by a surprise. It is interesting to note that the Congress party’s response on being ‘left out’ of the alliance from UP region. The move by both SP and BSP, for now, can be termed as a bold one considering that it is every challenging for a national party, including BJP, to look ahead for a majority victory without the support from regional parties. TRS party’s victory in the recently concluded assembly elections has set a political trend for a regional party to win successfully without any major party’s support through an alliance.
Though BJP has won the state assembly elections previously, the contest for Lok Sabha elections on a national level needs a unique strategy. Hence even a confident BJP should now be creating a new game plan to win the majority in this region — if it intends to do a ‘clean sweep’ act again.
On the other hand, it seems the Congress is now losing its hold on the much touted Mahaghatbandhan strategy. The strongest of the allies have now kept the Congress out of its reach to contest the crucial Lok Sabha elections. It still remains a mystery about how exactly the political strategy related to Mahaghatbandhan will unfold. With the recent successful win of TRS at Telangana, the regional parties, of late, are now taking bold and strong steps to fight alone and counter the challenges posed by major national parties in order to succeed in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Such a move by regional parties also signifies the extent of non dependability on major national parties, for now, leading them take a bold step perhaps to win Lok Sabha elections.
Varun S D
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
