MADHU AGRAWAL
(Guinness Record Holder for letters in Newspapers)Frequent elections can and should be avoided by reducing or extending terms of state-assemblies by up-to say one year to hold any elections only once in a year in a month considered best suited by various aspects. Any by-election or even regular civic or panchayat election may also be held in this ‘election-month’. Since a person cannot represent two constituencies or become member of both Parliament and state-assembly, no person should be allowed to contest from more than one constituency or for both Parliament and state-assembly. A sitting MP/MLA should resign first from his earlier post before filing nomination for the other seat.
Sanwarlal Jat continued to remain a minister in Rajasthan government for so many months despite his having been elected as member of Lok Sabha! It is significant that Sanwarlal Jat resigned from his seat in state-assembly from Nasirabad constituency to contest Lok Sabha polls from Ajmer. Even by-election to Nasirabad assembly-seat was later held with Congress having snatched the seat from ruling BJP.
Any minister in a state should automatically lose his/her ministerial portfolio and membership of legislature on even filing nomination for any of the House of Parliament. Likewise a Parliamentarian being appointed a minister (or Chief Minister) should automatically lose his/her membership of Parliament on taking oath as a minister (or Chief Minister) in a state. A controversial vote of the then Orissa Chief Minister Girdhar Gomango pulled down Atal Bihari Vajpayee government by his single vote putting nation to costly mid-term elections. Irony is that same Girdhar Gomango responsible solely for defeat of BJP-led Atal Bihari Vajpayee government at the centre has now joined BJP. A former Speaker of Lok Sabha rightly observed that constitution-makers never imagined such a scenario of impropriety, and Constitution was drafted by gentlemen for gentlemen!