Bhubaneswar: The Freethought Party of India (FPI) on Tuesday pulled up JD(U) chief and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s “selective love” for the principle of “Proportional Representation”.
Since the JDU has 16 MPs in the Lok Sabha and six MPs in the Rajya Sabha, Kumar insisted that the party should be given one Cabinet and 2 Ministers of State berths, one of them with Independent Charge, in the Narendra Modi Ministry.
“If a political leader wants to express his love for the principle of Proportional Representation then the party should go to the electorate-the number of voters that have voted for a particular party,” argued FPI general secretary B Ramchandra CST Voltaire in a statement.
According to the principle of proportional representation, the BJP should have got only 200 members in the Lok Sabha with 37.5 per cent vote share, he pointed out.
While the NDA’s vote share is 46 per cent, the BJP and allies should have got 245 members in the Lok Sabha. But because of the defective electoral system, called the FPTP System, the NDA has grossly over-represented in the Lok Sabha.
Even as the RJD got 15.38 per cent votes, it has not got any representation in the Lok Sabha. But the Congress got one seat with 7.7 per cent of votes. As per the PR, the RJD should have got six seats and the Congress Party three. With vote share of 23.58 per cent, the BJP is entitled to get nine instead of 17 MPs and with 21.81 per cent the JDU should have eight instead of 16.
“The PR system of election is now prevalent in 94 countries. When will CM Nitish Kumar give his full-throated support to the PR system of election,” wanted to know Voltaire.
Voltaire said Kumar should see the full-play of the principle of the proportional representation in the composition of the Lok Sabha and that of the State Assembly. He should not remember it with regard to the composition of the coalitional Cabinet, remarked he.
