'Politicians must bear expenses of unnecessary bypolls'

Even as the MLAs, including those, who have given up their Lok Sabha constituencies and some of them who gave up excess Assembly segments, are readying themselves for the Monsoon session, some activists are opposing the unnecessary by-elections. They demand that the politicians should bear the election expenses for the seats vacated by them.

President of Samagra Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Aravinda Sharma said that if an elected representative wishes to contest another election before the completion of his current term, he or she should bear the expenses of the polls of the seat he/she vacates.

He said the Election Commission should ask the candidate (already people’s representative) to deposit the estimated election expenses of the constituency being vacated for contesting from another constituency. “The additional expenses for the election of the vacated constituency should not be from public funds. It should be the responsibility of the elected representative, who vacates the constituency, before completion of one’s term, for ‘career progression’,” he said.

“A councillor or corporator vacates a ward to contest an Assembly, Council or Lok Sabha poll. MLCs and MLAs vacate their constituencies to contest Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha polls. MPs also vacate their seats, when they find that a victory in the Assembly poll might help them in ‘various’ ways. Out of insecurity or out of superiority complex some politicians contest from multiple constituencies and give up excess seats upon victory. Such politicians, who cause unnecessary financial as well as manual burden on the Election Commission and also on the government machinery, should be penalised,” Sharma said.

“Following the resignation of MPs B Sriramulu, B S Yeddyurappa and C S Puttaraju, as they were elected to the Assembly, Ballari, Shivamogga and Mandya Lok Sabha constituencies respectively have fallen vacant. The by-election was necessitated after Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy resigned from his second constituency of Ramanagar. Cutting across party lines, the people’s representatives have turned professional politicians. They see politics as a vocation, rather a family vocation which is being handed over from generation to generation (kulakasubu). They see it as a full-time job and strive for career progression. They want to be in power at any cost and be all over, denying opportunities to new entrants,” said B S Chandrasekhar, a primary member of a political party. The politicians are under the impression that they have the people’s support. The people have little choice as almost all nominees of the major political parties are alike. People have been voting on considerations like popularity, either positive or negative, contact through their contacts, religion, caste, and popularity of the leaders of the political parties. Most of it is an illusion. Times will definitely change. People will also change. They cannot be fooled for ever,” warned G K Puttaswamy, a retired government official.