Yechury bats for proportional representation

CPI(M) Politburo member Sitaram Yechury on Sunday opined that the present “first-past-the-post” electoral system is “distorted democracy” and advocated the need for proportional representation in Parliament instead, by taking the vote share of parties into consideration.

Speaking at a seminar on “Indian democracy: Necessity of Electoral Reforms - Proportional Representation as an Alternative” organised by the CPI(M), Yechury pointed out that the BJP bagged 282 seats by securing 31 per cent of the votes in the recent Lok Sabha elections and managed to gain a majority at the Centre.
 “Sixty-nine per cent of the total voters who exercised their franchise voted against the BJP and yet the party gets to form the government”, Yechury said.

He said proportional representation was much better for democracy as it would eliminate many ills of the present electoral system like caste politics. 

Yechury pointed out that a majority of the candidates who got elected under the “first-past-the-post”  system secured much less than 50 per cent of the votes cast.

JD(S) leader and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda said those advocating proportional representation did not have the numbers to get the electoral reforms passed in Parliament.

He said the Left parties should set aside their differences and unite.

Former minister and Congress leader B L Shankar felt that the Country had missed out on veteran CPI(M) leader Jyothi Basu becoming the prime minister.

Basu had given a clean administration as chief minister for more than two decades in West Bengal, he said.

Shankar rued that family politics had become part of the electoral system in the country.