TRS supports simultaneous polls

Telangana Rashtra Samithi favours simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and assemblies. On Sunday, TRS MP B Vinod Kumar handed over chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao’s letter to the law commission in Delhi, explaining the party’s opinion that was sought by the law panel from all parties. On Sunday, Kumar also told reporters in Delhi that it was not a ‘BJP or Modi agenda’ to have simultaneous polls.

In his letter, Chandrasekhar Rao explained why he favoured dual polls and one of the reasons cited was the massive expenditure incurred by both government and political parties if elections are held separately. “It will be a drain on exchequer if polls are not held simultaneously,” he said.

The chief minister also said 4-6 month work precedes Lok Sabha and assembly polls each time. During this period, the state and district administrative and security machinery is busy with elections, twice in five years,” he



said.

KCR pointed out that imposition of model code of conduct for a long period also hampers development activity by the state government.

Citing pre-occupation with key issues in the state, KCR sent the letter to law commission chairman Justice B S Chauhan through MP Vinod Kumar, who will also attend the meeting with the panel. After meeting the chairman, Kumar told the media that it’s wrongly being publicized it was ‘BJP and Modi agenda’ to have simultaneous polls.

“In fact, simultaneous polls were held from 1952-1968 in the country. After that since some states went for midterm poll, a situation arose where polls had to be held separately,” Vinod said.

The TRS MP pointed out elections once in five years would help the elected government to concentrate on governance without interruption. Kumar said Telangana and AP should have no objection to holding simultaneous polls.