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The timing of which made me write this article is very interesting. We have elections around the corner now. I want a few changes in the electoral system which we would discuss now.
Present system:
India has subscribed to the first past the post electoral system. India divided it’s seats in the assembly or parliament according to the number of population. Each seat in the assembly or parliament represents a constituency. Persons in the constituency would be elected on the basis of first past the post system and would be given a seat in assembly or parliament. Majority of the votes received by a person from these elected persons would be elected as Chief Minister or Prime Minister.
Disadvantages of the system :
There are many disadvantages of the system. First and foremost system is representation. For example let us take the AP assembly elections 2019 , Jagan Mohan Reddy received 50% of votes , Chandrababu Naidu received 40% of votes but Jagan Mohan Reddy won 150/175 seats and the Media declared it as landSlide. But there are very few MLAs in the assembly to represent that 40% people in the assembly.
Problems with the system :
As we look at the political system it’s only either CM or PM who works for the state or country. He is one who tries to bring companies to the country or make policies of the education or health care system. Rest of the elected members would be busy churning out money from contractors. Those elected members are not even worried about the economy of the state or current policies in the country. As CM or PM derives power from these elected representatives he needs to protect the elected members from any corruption or criminal scandals because he may lose power if elected members decide to pull him down. He needs to give free hand to corruption for these elected representatives.
Irony is that most people vote for directly electing the CM but our electoral system doesn’t give direct power. Most of the elected members would be setting up their own factories or industries and would be ready to slide with other parties if a better price is negotiated. So we need to make a system which gives power to the CM or PM.
Solution:
We need to design a system which combines the U.S style presidential system and proportional representation system. Political parties need to declare their CM candidates before the election. The candidate who is able to muster the highest number of votes all over the state or country is elected as CM or PM. Seats would be allocated according to the party vote share.
Drawbacks:
As every system has advantages and disadvantages this system has a huge drawback it would throttle the local level contact between leaders and people. This is a huge disadvantage in this system. If local level contact is lost between leaders and people it would be difficult for the country to progress because leaders fail to address local issues.
Way to solve the drawback :
Along with announcing the name of CM candidates, parties should announce their candidates in every constituency. Every candidate contested in the election belonging to all parties should be ranked according to the percentage of votes he received in his constituency. Every elected representative should be given a seat in the constituency on the merit basis according to his rank.
Explaining with example :
If Modi wins 45 % of votes of the country and Rahul Gandhi wins 38% of votes of the country and the rest of votes are divided among other parties. Then Modi is our PM , but BJP gets only 45 seats in the Parliament out of 100. If Rajat Singh gets 55% of votes in his constituency which is highest among all other constituencies then he would be given a First Rank.Those BJP MLA’s who would be in the top 45 on the basis of rank would be made Member of Parliament and would be given a constituency to take care. Similarly top 38 Members of Congress would be made as MP’s.
This process has a huge advantage because every elected member’s duty is to get the maximum percentage of Votes. Every politician doesn’t only fight with an adversary in his constituency but also with all contesting members in all constituencies including his own party members who are contesting in other constituencies. Every politician should make people believe that he has done good work in his constituency and need to work better in his constituency than other members in his party. It would be like a candidate preparing for a competitive exam every five years who needs to outperform all the other contestants who participate in the election.
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