Veteran Punjabi film actor Nirmal Rishi receives Padma Shri
Hyderabad, Former Chief Election Commissioner TS Krishnamurthy today said there was no need for the Election Commission to “delink” the Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly polls, and termed it an “avoidable controversy”.
Krishnamurthy argued that the HP poll could have been postponed by a few days to club it with that in Gujarat. “I don’t know why they should be delinked because it was an avoidable controversy, I thought. There was no need to delink them,” the former CEC said.
“When the convention (holding elections to Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat simultaneously) has been so, it could have been easily followed, or even if there was difficulty, the Himachal elections could have been postponed by four or five days,” he said.
The EC had on October 12 announced that the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh would be held in a single phase on November 9 and the results would be declared on December 18. The poll panel did not announce the dates for Assembly elections in Gujarat, but Chief Election Commissioner AK Joti had said that the elections would be held before December 18.
‘Aadhaar can be sole ID proof for voting’
Krishnamurthy favoured doing away with voter ID card saying Aadhaar could be the sole identity proof for voting. At present, the Election Commission allows a number of documents, including passport, as identity proof in the absence of the voter ID card.
“Today, we are having too many cards leading to so many complications. Don’t introduce too many complications in the system. Time has come we should think of only one card, whatever be the card,” Krishnamurthy said. “ID proof may be Aadhaar card when you are using it for all other purposes. It can be used for election also,” he said.
