Consider the following statements:
1.In India, there is no law restricting candidates from contesting in one Lok Sabha election from three constituencies.
2.In the 1991 Lok Sabha Election, Shri Devi Lal contested from three Lok Sabha constituencies.
3. As per the existing rules, if a candidate contests in one Lok Sabha election from many constituencies, his/her party should bear the cost of bye-elections to the constituencies vacated by him/her in the event of him/her winning in all the constituencies.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Explanation
In 1996, the Representation of the People Act, 1951 was amended to restrict from ‘three’ to ‘two’ the number of seats one candidate could contest in Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. Hence, statement 1 is not correct.
In 1991, Shri Devi Lal contested three Lok Sabha seats, Sikar, Rohtak and Ferozepur seats. Hence, statement 2 is correct.
Whenever a candidate contests from more than one seat and wins more than one, the candidate has to retain only one, forcing by polls in the rest. It results in an unavoidable financial burden on the public exchequer, government manpower and other resources for holding by-election against the resultant vacancy. Hence, statement 3 is not correct.
Therefore, option (b) is the correct answer.