A meeting of the presidents of various political parties convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday to discuss a range of issues including 'one nation, one election' is likely to see several absentees from the opposition side. Modi has invited presidents of all those parties who have an MP either in Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha for the meeting.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who heads the ruling Trinamool Congress in the state, has excused herself from attending the meeting while asking the government to prepare a white paper on 'one nation, one election' idea.
“The matter requires consultations with constitutional experts, elections experts and above all the party members,” she said in a letter to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi.
Telangana Rashtra Samiti president and Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao would not attend Wednesday's meeting. The TRS, however, made it clear that K.T. Rama Rao, working president of the party and son of the chief minister, would represent the party in the meeting.
Both Banerjee and Rao had also skipped the prime minister's swearing-in ceremony on May 30 and also the NITI Aayog meeting last week.
Telugu Desam Pary president N. Chandrababu Naidu will also give the meeting a miss. “On Wednesday, Naidu is scheduled to go on a short vacation abroad along with his family members for a week. Hence, he is not in a position to attend the all-party meeting. He will back in Amaravati on June 25,” a TDP leader told the Hindustan Times on Tuesday.
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The Hindu has reported that Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M.K. Stalin and Nationalist Congress Party leader Sharad Pawar would also not be attending Wednesday's meeting.
Though the DMK has not given any specific reason for not attending the meeting except that Stalin has prior commitments, the party has been vehemently opposing the idea of 'one nation one election'. Last year, Stalin had shot a letter to the Law Commission firmly opposing the simultaneous polls, stating that it goes against the "basic tenets of our constitution".
Meanwhile, ahead of the party presidents' meeting, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance held a meeting chaired by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the issue. After the meeting, Ahir Ranjan Choudhary, the newly appointed leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, told reporters that many of the opposition parties were opposed to the idea in principle.
Earlier, the Left parties also opposed the idea of ‘one nation, one election’, calling it undemocratic and against the principle of federalism.
The all-party meeting on Wednesday is also likely to discuss celebration of the 75 years of Independence in 2022 and 150 years of Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary this year.
