PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES 639
candidate. All that is necessary is that he should exercise his choice within the prescribed time. He has been given power under this very clause to say whether he wants to retain constituency No. A. B. or C. Therefore there is no occasion or necessity for the Election Commissioner either to enquire from him or to make a decision on his behalf that he should be allowed to retain one seat. The choice is entirely in the hands of the candidate and I do not know whether such a provision is at all necessary.
Mr. Speaker: His point seems to me to be that, it is possible that this contingency may be out of sight of the candidate who is elected and therefore the Election Commissioner would do better, if he sent something by way of a reminder informing the candidate that he stands to lose all the seats.
Dr. Ambedkar: I do not think that such a contingency could be contemplated for, the simple reason that every candidate elected will certainly arm himself with a copy of the rules. And he may be presumed to have read the rules. Another difficulty which I see is this, that even if an obligation was imposed upon the Election Commissioner to make an enquiry then he must fulfil that obligation with regard to every such candidate
Pandit Thakur Das Bhargava: There will be very few who will be returned from more than one
10-00 A . M . constituency—he must be a very popular man who is elected from more than one constituency.
Mr. Speaker: The contingency is more academic.
- Shri S. N. Das: I request the Hon. Minister again to agree to the suggestion that expenses should be minimized in the elections. The whole work should be done in accordance with it and the rule-making authority as well as the Ministry should frame rules keeping all these things in view so that the real representatives of the people, even if they are not rich, may be easily elected.
Dr. Ambedkar: I do not accept the amendment.
- P. D., Vol. 12, Part II, 23rd May 1951, p. 9272.