Frequent by-elections have become an integral part of political process. However, most of them are unrelated to the basic purpose of allowing the citizenry to elect their representatives, but precipitated by certain political groups for extraneous reasons for gaining extra mileage. The efforts and expenses involved in holding an election in an assembly or parliamentary constituency are stupendous. Moreover, every election campaigning quite often gives raise to social disquiet and challenging law and order situations. The interest of democracy as well as good governance would be well served if the Representation of Peoples Act is amended to ensure that by-elections are held only for genuine reasons such as death or incapacity of the incumbent delegate.
