Political parties oppose too many phases for LS polls

New Delhi, Feb 3 (PTI) India's major political parties
Tuesday opposed holding of Lok Sabha polls in too many phases,
saying it would not provide a level playing field to smaller
parties and demanded an effective mechanism to curb surrogate
advertisements.

At a meeting of national and state political parties
convened by India's Election Commission in the run up to the
general elections likely in April-May, they felt that use of
money and muscle power should be checked effectively to ensure
free and fair polls.

Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader Sitaram Yechury
said the Lok Sabha elections should not be stretched too much
and not exceed "at the most three weeks".

Yechury, as also D Raja of CPI said that states like
Tamil Nadu and Kerala should have single-phase polling.

Though not on the agenda, several parties raised the
stand-off between Chief Election Commissioner N Gopalaswami
and Election Commissioner Navin Chawla and said the
"neutrality, integrity and objectivity" of the constitutional
body should be maintained.

In all 32 political parties including seven national
parties participated in the meeting where all the three
Election Commissioners were present to elicit the views of
political parties on the conduct of the general elections.

Senior Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Mukhtar Abbas
Naqvi, who represented the party, said while deciding the poll
schedule, the EC should keep in mind the board examinations in
March, a suggestion which was also made by Rashtriya Janata
Dal (RJD) leader and Union Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh.

He said along with BJP, several other parties expressed
concern over surrogate advertisements and misuse of media for
campaign.

Naqvi also demanded strong measures to ensure that the
poll atmosphere was not vitiated by the use of money and
muscle power and suggested special steps for the naxal-hit
states.

Singh said even if a voter did not have photo identity
cards, he or she should not be barred from casting ballots.

He said para-military forces should be deployed at all
booths and efforts should be made to see that the Electronic
Voting Machines (EVMs) were not tampered with.

Another Union Minister and senior Congress Minister Kapil
Sibal expressed concern over surrogate advertisements and
pointed out that advertisements often appeared in the form
of news involving a lot of expenditure.

There should be self-regulation to control it, he said, a
view shared by Yechury who suggested a model code of conduct
for the media.

The CPI(M) leader said the practise of stopping
developmental work for the whole period of general elections
should be reconsidered and ongoing developmental works like
NREGA should not be disrupted.

Both CPI(M) and CPI demanded proportional representation
and state funding of elections.

D Raja suggested vulnerability mapping to ensure
protection to weaker sections so that they can exercise their
franchise without any fear.

He also said deployment of para-military forces should
be done after assessement of a particular situation and not on
pre-determined assumptions.

Biren Baishya (AGP) opposed use of EVMs alleging that
they were tampered at many places.

He also opposed use of helicopters and planes by major
political parties to the disadvantage of smaller parties.

Asked about Bangladeshi infiltrators possessing electoral
identity cards in Assam, he said they should not be allowed to
vote. PTI MS
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