The BJP noted on Sunday that Lok Sabha and Assembly polls were held together in the country till 1967 and the issue of simultaneous elections was debated when Indira Gandhi was the prime minister as well, as it attacked Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his “parochial” stand in criticising the idea.
“The first time serious contemplation, to go back to the arrangement (simultaneous polls) our founding fathers had envisaged, happened in 1982 when Mrs Indira Gandhi was in power. Since then Law Commissions of India, Election Commission and Parliamentary Committees have examined and advocated this idea,” Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) IT department head Amit Malviya said on X.
Rahul Gandhi, he said, needs to be reminded that India started its electoral process in 1952 with simultaneous polls, which continued till 1967.
The Congress, because of its “opportunistic” politics, disrupted this arrangement and the country could never recover from that disruption and the election cycle kept getting more fractured, Malviya said.
Attacking the Congress leader, he said, “Is Rahul Gandhi suggesting that Nehru, Indira and several institutions of India have been undermining the idea of India, as enshrined in our Constitution, and attacking our federal structure? Only someone as daft as Rahul Gandhi can say something as outrageous as this.” His parochial world view will never be able to appreciate the concept of “one India, one election”, Malviya alleged.
He claimed that anything that strives to unite the country will be unacceptable to the Congress as it has thrived on divisions and conflicts for decades.
Simultaneous polls are a bold idea that is bound to further enrich and streamline India’s democratic processes, Malviya said, adding that it will allow more time for governance and development, without the country being constrained by a never-ending election cycle.
“It requires vision and intention, both of which Rahul Gandhi sadly lacks. While he may be incapable of coming up with ideas that could help the country progress, the least he can do is not stand in the way of much-needed structural reforms,” he said.
The Congress leader has alleged that the idea of “one nation, one election” is an attack on the Indian Union and all its states.
In a post on X, Gandhi said, “INDIA, that is Bharat, is a Union of states.” “The idea of ‘one nation, one election’ is an attack on the Union and all its states,” he added.
Gandhi’s attack came after the BJP-led Centre set up a high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind to make recommendations on the possibility of holding simultaneous elections.
The committee will examine and recommend specific amendments to the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act and any other laws and rules that would require amendments for the purpose of holding simultaneous elections.
It will also examine and recommend whether the amendments to the Constitution would require ratification by the states.
The committee will also analyse and recommend possible solutions to scenarios such as a hung House, the adoption of a no-confidence motion or defection or any such other event in case of simultaneous polls.
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