Kovind-headed committee to explore possibility of 'one-nation, one-election'

NEW DELHI: A day after announcing a “special session” of Parliament, the government on Friday constituted a committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind to explore the feasibility of ‘one nation, one election’, opening the possibility of Lok Sabha polls being advanced so that they could be held with a string of state assembly elections.

The move caught opposition INDIA bloc, holding their conclave in Mumbai, by surprise and further raised the political heat. The INDIA bloc slammed the decision as a “threat” to the country’s federal structure.

Meanwhile, arrangements are also being made for group photos of MPs during the “special session” of Parliament from September 18-22, sparking another set of speculation as such a picture is generally taken at the beginning or end of the Parliament term.

Sources said on Friday that Kovind will explore the feasibility of the exercise and the mechanism to see how the country can go back to having simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly polls, as was the case till 1967.

He is expected to speak to experts and may consult leaders of political parties, they said.

While the government has kept the agenda of the session under wraps, its move has come amid indications that “special session” could be the last meeting of the 17th Lok Sabha and elections can be advanced.

Since coming to power in 2014, PM Modi has been a strong votary of simultaneous polls, including local bodies, citing financial burden caused by continuous election cycle and jolt to development work during the polling period.

Assembly polls are due in Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Rajasthan in Nov-Dec, to be followed by LS polls in May-June next year. Andhra, Odisha, Sikkim and Arunachal will go to polls with LS elections.

Kovind panel report to be debated in Parl: Min

Union minister Pralhad Joshi on Friday said the report of the Ram Nath Kovind panel on ‘One Nation, One Election’ will be discussed in the public domain and Parliament.

The central government has constituted a committee headed by the former president to explore the feasibility of holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies.

Much like the nectar that was churned out after ‘Samudra Manthan’, ‘amrit’ will emerge out of the brainstorming on the issue, the Union minister of parliamentary affairs said here.

“The committee has just been formed... The report of the committee will come, and the report will be discussed in the public domain and Parliament,” Joshi said, asking why this worries the opposition.

The BJP leader also said that the opposition parties do not have faith in the people of the country. “India is the world’s largest democracy. India is called the mother of democracy. New topics that come up in an evolving democracy should be discussed. We have not said that anything will happen from tomorrow itself,” the minister told reporters at the Jaipur airport. “If there is an idea, there must be a discussion,” he added. Joshi said Lok Sabha and assembly elections were held simultaneously in the past, due to which there was a good environment for development in the country.

The minister said when a government is formed at the Centre and elections go on at different places, it creates a problem in the decision-making process. Joshi, the BJP’s election in-charge for Rajasthan, arrived in Jaipur on Friday for the launch of the party’s ‘parivartan yatra’.