Standing from Multiple Constituencies.

Rabri Devi to contest Bihar polls from two seats

Patna, Oct 4 (IANS) Former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi will contest the state assembly elections from two constituencies this month, her husband and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) head Lalu Prasad announced Monday.

She will contest from Raghopur and Sohanpur in the third phase of state assembly elections, he told reporters here.

The RJD also released the second list of 60 candidates for the third and fourth phases of the polls.

Why should our "people's representatives" who are dying to serve us be allowed to stand for more than one seats.
The government has to spend lakhs of rupees for holding an election in each seat and the candidates spend at least 2 crores in an MLA election and 20 crores in a MP election.
When any candidate stands from more than one constituency he/she hopes to win from at least one constituency. But sometimes he/she wins from both constituency. In such a situation, the whole electoral process has to be repeated in the constituency he /she vacates.
This causes loss to the government and to the other candidates who stood from that constituency.
This should be stopped immediately by making changes in the People's Representative Act.
Either of the following should be done.
1. The candidate who gets the second highest votes from the vacated constituency should automatically be elected.
OR
2. The person who resigns his seat should be made to pay a penalty to the government and to each of the candidates who stood for elections in that constituency the expenditure incurred by them based on the maximum expenses permitted by the government.

Unless this is done, Rabri Devi is not going to be the first nor will she be the last to stand from multiple constituencies.
Her husband, Lalu Yadav, also did it earlier and may do it again this time.
Even Indira Gandhi had stood from multiple constituencies on more than one occasion.