65 bypolls in 6 yrs stall AP: Speaker

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Speaker Nadendla Manohar received an unwelcome anniversary gift on Monday: The resignations of two Congress MLAs from the Assembly in support of Kadapa MP Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Alla Nani (Eluru) and Ravu Venkata Sujay Krishna Ranga Rao (Bobbili) had already announced last week that they would be quitting to protest the “harassment and injustice” being meted out to the family of Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy, and his son being implicated in serious criminal cases. Their resignations came just after the Speaker, in his press conference to mark his one year in office, had expressed displeasure over the state witnessing frequent bypolls — as ma-ny as 65 since 2006, according to his calculation.

He had suggested that Parliament should consider the recommendations of the Law Commission of India which included discouragement of resignations — both forced and voluntary — by members of Assemblies and the Lok Sabha, and disqualifying the outg-oing member from contesting in the ensuing bypoll.

EC spends Rs 2cr on Assembly bypoll
Speaker Nadendla Manohar said that frequent bypolls were not good for the country in general and the state in particular as it involved huge expenditures by the government and the political parties. It is estimated that the Election Commission spends Rs 2 crore for conducting a bypoll in a single Assembly constituency byelection to a Lok Sabha seat entails polling in all its constituent Assembly segments.

This does not include the crores of rupees — sometimes as much as Rs 10 crore each — spent by political parties and their candidates both officially and unofficially for every Assembly seat bypoll. “From 2006 till now, the state has witnessed bypolls in 65 Assembly constituencies which have not only put a burden on the exchequer but also caused immense hardships to people in the respective districts on account of implementation of the model code which almost stops development and welfare activities for a couple of months,” the Speaker said.

He added that attention and time of the elected government was unnecessarily being diverted due to the unwanted bypolls. Mr Manohar said that the Law Commission of India, apart from other issues, had recommended to the Union government to amend the laws to prevent frequent bypolls. It had also suggested that members who resigned voluntarily or by force, and those who faced disqualification, should not be entitled to contest in the bypolls to fill the vacancy.

“I strongly believe such amendments alone will bring down the curtains on this kind of menace on democracy, I believe Parliament will soon take up the recommendations and adopt various amendments to this effect,” said Mr Manohar, adding, “Even the disbursement of the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund is being delayed in the name of the code of conduct, this is a serious issue that Parliament needs to consider.” He also said that once Parliament brings amendments to the electoral laws, there would be no question of forced and voluntary resignations by members. However it would exclude holding bypolls to casual vacancies, such as when a sitting member dies.