Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today batted for holding simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies, saying there is a need to rescue the people from too many elections.
His remarks came days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a fresh pitch for holding the polls together. Modi had said that like festivals, elections should be held on fixed dates so that governments can function for five years. He had also said that barbs exchanged during campaigning in one state have a bearing in other parts of the country which are not going to polls.
Speaking on the National Voters Day here, Prasad said that Indians were becoming too much election-oriented people. Pointing out that every year there were elections including those to some state assemblies followed by Lok Sabha polls the following year, the minister said, "Time has come to rescue people from so many elections."
He said political parties will have to sit together to decide on simultaneous polls.
In an interview to PTI, newly-appointed chief election commissioner OP Rawat had said recently that the legal framework required to hold the two elections together will take a "lot of time" to get ready.
Rawat had also said he would be the wrong person to respond as to whether simultaneous polls could be held in 2019.
"We cannot put the cart before the horse. Logistical issues are subservient to legal framework. Unless legal framework is in place, we don't have to talk about anything else because legal framework will take lot of time — making constitutional amendment to (changing) the law — all the process will take time," he said.
