'Need to ponder over voters' role post polls'

Gandhinagar: BJP MP Varun Gandhi on Friday said there was a need to ponder over what should be the role of voters once elections were over, while pointing out that the provision of "Right to Recall" the elected representatives was prevalent in over 60 countries.

Maintaining that he was neither in favour nor against the introduction of the "Right to Recall" system, which empowered the voters to remove mid-way a lawmaker who had failed to deliver, in India, Gandhi, however, said the big question was should the people remain just spectators (after an election) or bring in change.

Addressing a gathering of students at the Karnavati University here, the MP from Sultanpur in Uttar Pradesh rued that his appeal to the rich MPs and MLAs to forgo their salaries had not elicited any positive response.

He said an MP or MLA faced disqualification if found guilty of involvement in serious crimes, but nothing much happened to those who were accused of criminal offences but not convicted by courts.

"If you have an MP or MLA who is convicted of serious crimes, he will be disqualified. What if they are accused of crimes like land-grabbing, arson or rioting..." he said.