New Delhi: Congress has chosen not to support the Central government’s ‘One Nation One Election’ initiative and has announced that it would not take part in the all party meet called by Narendra Modi to discuss about the ground breaking proposal to synchronize the national and state elections.
The all party meet was called to discuss about conducting the simultaneous elections, the celebrations of the 75th anniversary of Independence in 2022 and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi this year.
Earlier, Mamata Banerjee wrote to the Central government that she would not be participating in the all party meeting. Most of the opposition party leaders had decided not to attend the meeting which includes BSP chief Mayawati, M. K. Stalin, Chandra Babu Naidu, and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. However, TDB and AAP will be sending their representatives.
Interestingly, the CPI which opposes the idea of One Nation One Election initiative has decided to attend the meeting. The communist party says that the move is undemocratic and goes against the federal system.
However, BJD leader Naveen Patnaik has supported the Government’s initiative and said that it is vital for the development of the states as every leader can concentrate on the development agenda rather than being involved in electioneering most of their time in office.
The One Nation One Election system will also help the country cut down on the huge expenses incurred and the time spend for the election works. In fact the country was having simultaneous election in both centre and the states till 1967. The system failed after some legislatives were dissolved. The fourth Lok Sabha also did not complete the five years norm and the country had gone to election in December 1970.
The present government realizes that a return to the earlier simultaneous elections is in the interest of the county. That is why the BJP has been mooting for this for some time now. Even the 2014 manifesto of the BJP had mentioned taking the nation towards a simultaneous election system.
