Lack of popular majority forbids you from majoritarian govt: Pranab Mukherjee

During the hearing today, the court asked the advocate representing Sengar to produce nomination papers submitted with Election Commission during the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.

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New Delhi: Former President Pranab Mukherjee cautioned against majoritarian rule saying that a government with an overwhelming majority thinks that it can do anything but that should not be the case. "Every time a government has behaved on the contrary, the voter has punished the incumbent in elections that follow. We think we can do anything and everything when we have an overwhelming majority in the legislature. However, that should not be the case," Mukherjee said on Monday.

The former President was delivering the second Atal Bihari Memorial lecture organised by India Foundation in the national capital. "Indian electorate has time and again conveyed to the party that goes to form the government that it may form the government with a majority but it should also take in consideration the views of all those people who may not have voted for them," he said.

Mukherjee's statement comes at a time when the opposition parties are accusing the BJP-led Central government of 'misusing' the people's mandate it got in the 17th Lok Sabha elections. Mukherjee also gave impetus to the Modi government's plan to increase the number of seats in Lok Sabha through delimitation.

The number of increased seats in Lok Sabha should be taken to 1,000 and seats in Rajya Sabha too should be increased accordingly, Mukherjee added.