By IANS,
New Delhi:The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Saturday welcomed the government’s proposal to give voting rights to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) by the next general election.
NCP spokesman D.P. Tripathi said that his party supported Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement Friday about giving voting rights to Indians living abroad.
“We want that Indian citizens living abroad should be given voting rights. Countries like France do it for their citizens,” Tripathi told IANS.
The NCP is a partner in the United Progressive Alliance government.
Asked for his party’s reaction, Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Nilotpal Basu said the question of citizenship had to be decided by parliament through consensus.
“We are not commenting on the prime minister’s remarks at the moment,” he said.
Communist Party of India leader Gurudas Dasgupta said the party would not make any initial reaction to the proposal. “We will react to it later,” he said.
Speaking in the same vein, Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandhyopadhya said the party had not yet discussed the proposal. “We have not yet discussed it. We will give a response later.”
The Bharatiya Janata Party had Friday welcomed the proposal as a “good idea” but said the implementation would need a lot of homework.
Congress spokesman Manish Tewari, welcoming the proposal, said he hoped early steps would be taken to implement it.