Abstract:It is argued that given the high variation and lack of stability in candidate structure across regions and over time, a local approach on “signature requirement" " as in the United States " could be an effectivedeterrent to hyper-plurality in candidate entry in elections in India. Accordingly it is suggested that the Election Commission of India should not only have the power to determine the "electoral deposit" before each election, it should also have the power to change the minimum signature requirement across constituencies under certain pre-specified conditions.

About the Speaker:Dr. Kaushik Bhattacharya is currently an academic at the Indian Institute of Management Lucknow. Dr. Bhattacharya graduated from the Indian Statistical Institute. He did his post-doc in the University of Bonn. Dr. Bhattacharya worked in statistics and monetary policy departments of the Reserve Bank of India. He had also been a visiting research fellow at the Bank for International Settlements and a recipient of DAAD fellowship, Germany. In the past, Dr. Bhattacharya worked on different types of applied econometric problems and published extensively in international and national journals. His special interest was on monetary policy and central banking. One of Dr. Bhattacharya's current research interests is, however, electoral studies. In particular, he is deeply interested in studying thephenomenon of hyper-plurality in elections (e.g., the emergence of large number of candidates) and its implications on electoral regulation, political party systems and democracy in general.