more-in K. Jayaprakash Hegde, former MP and Bharatiya Janata Party leader, said on Friday that voters should question elected representatives on their attendance and participation in debates in either Legislative Assembly or parliament. He was speaking at an interaction programme organised by the Departments of Political Science and Journalism at the Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) College, here. Mr. Hegde said it was incumbent upon the elected representatives to raise questions relevant to the development works in their respective constituencies and not personal questions. The people too should not re-elect representatives not interested in development of their constituencies. He recently read that elected representatives should be given training. There were several books and manuals explaining how the elected representatives should work after they got elected. But even after reading these, many did not follow it. They hardly did any work after getting elected, he said. The Legislature, Executive, Judiciary and the Third Estate were the reflection of the society. The organs were busy finding fault with one another instead of correcting themselves, Mr. Hegde said. To a query, he said that the ban on flex boards should be extended to the entire State and not confined to Bengaluru. He had written to the Chief Minister, and the latter had replied stating that he had already issued directions. To a question, he said there should not be more than three to four parties in the country. This would bring down the election expenses considerably. Defection of politicians had increased after the Anti-Defection Act came into force. It was better if the elected representatives voted according to their conscience in the House as in the U.S. He had been in the Janata Dal and the Congress, and was now in the BJP. But he had never hesitated to make his views clear to the respective parties. He had also been elected twice successively as Independent MLA in 1999 and 2004 Assembly elections from Brahmavar Assembly Constituency (which went out of existence during the Delimitation exercise), Mr. Hegde said.

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