It's been over a year since Prime Minister Narendra Modi floated the idea of ‘one nation, one election’, according to which simultaneous polls could be held for Lok Sabha and state assemblies, but consensus still eludes political parties. Now, a RSS and BJP-affiliated think tank is pushing for building a debate around the issue.
Newly appointed chairperson of Indian Council of Cultural Relations, Vinay Sahasrabuddhe said holding simultaneous elections would save the government several thousand crores of rupees. Sahasrabuddhe, who wears many hats one among which is looking after the functioning of the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhni—a Mumbai based research and training institute—will organise a two-day seminar, pushing for simultaneous elections. Sahasrabuddhe is also a Rajya Sabha MP and BJP's national vice president.
Sahasrabuddhe has invited Haryana Chief Minister M.L. Khattar, BJD MP Baijayant Panda, constitutional expert Subash Kashyap and Niti Ayog vice chairman Rajiv Kumar to discuss the issue. The seminar will be held in Mumbai on January 20-21.
Modi's call for simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies was favoured by the Niti Ayog and the Election Commission. The idea behind such an exercise is to save humongous amount of money besides helping the parties and government focus on running the administration, instead of getting frequently involved in electioneering. As state elections are held very a few months, it leads to shifting of focus especially by the Central government on polling issues.
But beyond the issue of governance, holding simultaneous polls will help BJP and Modi the most. In the past nearly four years, Modi has been involved in campaigning in all the states that went to polls since 2014. If polls were to be held together, then even in state polls, electorate may end up voting on the national issues, thus diminishing the role of regional leaders, but helping national leaders. Critics of the ‘one nation, one election’ say the idea favours Modi as he would then be holding presidential kind of election campaign, annihilating the regional parties.
Sahasrabuddhe termed the concept as “mother of all reforms”.
But the concept holds several practical problems as state governments may be dismissed midway, thus again affecting the schedule of simultaneous polls. Sahasrabuddhe countered saying country was maturing and in the process was also dealing with the situation.
Now, even as Modi keeps on pushing for simultaneous polls, many think though it is difficult but 2019 is when maybe it can happen.
