Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated May 12, 1956: Elections as scheduled

The Prime Minister told the Lok Sabha on May 11 that the Government were anxious to have the general elections in March next as scheduled. Mr. Nehru, who was replying during question-time to a supplementary by Seth Govind Das whether the Government could categorically say when the next general elections would be held, said that, according to the Constitution, the next general elections had to be held early next year. So far as the Election Commission was concerned its chief business was to prepare for the elections. "If we ask the Commission on the present basis of constituencies to have elections, it will produce a programme for elections in two or three months from now. The Commission is quite ready. But the difficulty comes in as new constituencies will have to be demarcated because of new States and, for these reasons, the Commission cannot undertake the question of next elections till it knows the final decision of Parliament. As soon as the final decision is known, the Commission will go ahead with the work of organising the next general elections. The exact date for the Election Commission to start work (on the next general elections) cannot be fixed unless you fix the date for the finalisation of the new States." Prof. D.C. Sharma asked how long the state of suspense would last since contradictory statements were appearing in the press. Mr. Nehru replied: "The honourable member relies on rumours and gossip. Nobody can stop the effect of rumour and gossip on people who give their ears to it."

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