Endorsing BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s views on the option of negative voting, party veteran L.K. Advani on Sunday said a negative vote would become “really meaningful if it is accompanied also by the introduction of mandatory voting.”
Endorsing BJP prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi’s views on the option of negative voting, party veteran L.K. Advani on Sunday said a negative vote would become “really meaningful if it is accompanied also by the introduction of mandatory voting.” In his latest blog posting, the BJP parliamentary party chief welcomed the Supreme Court’s suggestion that people should have the option of a negative vote. He however, added that along with this provision voting should be made mandatory. “As things stand today, voters who without any legitimate justification have not been exercising the valuable right of franchise the Indian Constitution has conferred on them have, unwittingly thus, been casting a negative vote against all the contesting candidates without intending to do so,” Mr Advani wrote. He further said “I hold, therefore, that a negative vote would become really meaningful if it is accompanied also by the introduction of mandatory voting.” He also gave credit to Mr Modi, whose elevation first as BJP’s campaign committee chief and later as the PM candidate he had resisted, for making the first move in this direction in his state Gujarat.
