Poll corruption nauseating, scrap Council: Joshi

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mining, Pralhad Joshi has reignited a debate on the much discussed topic of abolition of the Legislative Council in Karnataka and has strongly favoured its scrapping considering the alleged huge corruption in the Council polls. Karnataka is one of the few states which has an Upper House with a strength of 75 members. Bills and Legislation passed by the Assembly are sent to the Upper House where the members vet it and send it back to the Lower House. The Legislative Council has powers to stall any bill except the finance bill. Even in the case of other bills, the Assembly can re-introduce the bill in the House, in case the bill is struck down in the Legislative Council.

Joshi told media that of late, elections to the Council resemble the Assembly polls as candidates spend crores of rupees to woo voters. In the current election too, there are reports of candidates distributing money in the range of Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 for each vote besides distributing gold and silver ornaments or electronic gadgets.

With this being the situation, it is better to strike a consensus among all political parties and scrap the Upper House which would save the exchequer crores of rupees, the minister said. He felt ‘corruption’ in elections to the Upper House which is popularly known as ‘Chinthakara Chavadi’ (thinker’s platform) is quite disturbing. The amount of money people are spending to buy votes of local body members is shocking. In view of this, political parties must have a rethink on the issue of having a Legislative Council in the state, he felt.

This issue has been discussed many times in the last few years. But no political party is ready to take a strong stand on this issue since the Upper House has become a place to have its leaders in power, he added.

The tenure of a MLC is six years and they too enjoy all the perks and benefits being given to Assembly members.