Government rejects proposal on 51% votes for poll victory

NEW DELHI: The government has rejected the proposal of at least 51% votes for winning an election seat, which was suggested in the National Integration Council (NIC) meeting in 2011. The NIC meeting in 2011 had proposed that at least 51% votes must be a pre-requisite for winning an election.

At Monday’s NIC meet in Delhi, the Home Ministry laid out an Action Taken Report (ATR) on the suggestions made at the 2011 NIC meeting, which has been accessed by ET. The Ministry has informed the NIC that both the Union Law Ministry and Election Commission have rejected the 51% suggestion saying it is unlikely that candidates will be able to secure such absolute majority votes.

“In election to Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, the first-past-the-pole system is followed in which the candidate securing the highest number of votes is declared the winner irrespective of the percentage of votes polled by him. If more than 50% vote is mandatory, there could be a situation where no one gets elected…this would lead to multiple elections to a seat which would end up in incurring huge expenditure,” the Union Home Ministry noted in the ATR.

Minutes of the 2011 NIC meet show noted sociologist Asghar Ali Engineer had suggested the 51% votes formula at the 2011 NIC meet, saying this would be a key factor to ensure communal harmony and stop “political misuse of religion” since the winning candidates are not representative of the majority view of the electorate.