PANAJI
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar denied that there would be an attempt to schedule Goa’s General Assembly elections in 2019 in a bid to simultaneously hold Central and State elections saying the thinking that LS and State Assembly elections should be held simultaneously was only to generate a debate with an ultimate aim of making it happen sometime in the future.
“According to the Constitution the term of the Vidhan Sabha and Lok Sabha is five years. It can be dissolved. What Prime Minister Narendra Modi is saying ‘in principle’, is correct. I support it because we waste a lot of time on holding elections separately. That does not mean it is going to happen immediately. That is because you require legal provision for it. And if you have to bring a legal provision, you will need a constitutional amendment,” Parrikar said.
“What should be the constitutional amendment? Questions will be asked if I have lost power to dissolve the Assembly,” Parrikar said hinting that there will be divisions over exactly what the changes in the Constitution should involve.
Parrikar suggested that some Vidhan Sabhas are given extended terms and others curtailed terms so that all the elections are conducted simultaneously with a little preponing and postponing here and there.
“This is possible only with a constitutional amendment, but not at this stage. But he’s (prime minister) setting the agenda for the nation to discuss. Let there be a discussion and if there is unanimity among all, then political parties will come on board and slowly in the future it will be done,” Parrikar said.
The Prime Minister had suggested that elections to the central and State governments be held simultaneously, a move which has been met with much scepticism especially by all the Opposition parties.
