The demand for the PR system is, however, not entirely new. “This demand has been raised from time to time since 1952 because Left and other smaller parties, including the Jan Sangh, were then upset with the Congress like they are with the BJP now since the number of seats that Congress used to win were disproportionate to its vote share,” a noted political scientist, CP Bhambri told HT over phone from Delhi.In 2017, the BJP almost replicated the Congress’ performance in 1980 when the latter won 309 seats with 39.6% votes while the BJP won 11 seats with 10.8% votes.It is seen that the demand for holding polls through ballot papers and adopting PR electoral system are the examples of how history repeats itself. After BJP’s defeat in 2009 Lok Sabha polls it was LK Advani, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate who had raised a question mark over EVMs demanding introduction of ballot papers in future polls. Incidentally, some Left parties had backed Advani on the issue, then also.Bhambri said both the FPTP and the PR systems had their own merits and demerits but the adoption of PR electoral system, he said would certainly provide more representation to smaller parties and minorities in proportion to their vote share. The FPTP system he said worked on winner-take-all principle and often did not represent the public mood.Girish claimed all non-BJP parties supported the Left parties demand for adoption of the PR or hybrid electoral system to break the BJP’s dominance. “But they are not taking position on the issue like we do,” he regretted.
