SHILLONG: As the Election Commission does not foresee any difficulty in holding Assembly and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously after September next year, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma has called for analysing the merits and demerits of holding simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
Speaking to mediapersons here on the sidelines of the oath-taking ceremony of Ganga Prasad as the Governor of Meghalaya on Thursday, Sangma said, “The practical application of this whole concept of thinking process on how practically it can be implemented in the given context of the whole constitutional mandate or provision has to be looked at.”
According to the chief minister, in a democracy, there could even be a situation of advancing the elections in any of the states.
Responding to another query, Sangma said, “There is a situation which calls for a mid-term poll as far as Parliament is concerned. Then should we all go for mid-term poll in all the states because the mandate is for five years.”
He said such a move (to hold simultaneous elections) requires a lot of long drawn engagement with all the concerned political parties across the nation.
“If it is contemplated, it has to be collectively contemplated and collective endeavour has to be there. We have to look at the merits and demerits and also look at the realistic aspect of it,” Sangma added.
“When you have elections simultaneously for the state legislatures and for Parliament, then a kind of situation comes where elections have to be advanced in some of the states,” he told reporters.
