Simultaneous polls will strengthen polity, says Amit Shah

New Delhi: With the general elections fast approaching, the BJP has reignited the debate on “one nation, one poll.”  On Monday, BJP president Amit Shah, in a letter to the Law Commission, batted for simultaneous elections in the country, saying it would  check expenditure and ensure that the nation is not in “election mode” throughout the year and the developmental works does not get affected. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on various occasions supported the concept of simultaneous polls.

The issue was also addressed by President Ram Nath Kovind and his predecessor Pranab Mukherjee in their speeches.  A BJP delegation led by Union minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and comprising of senior leader Bhupendra Yadav and Vinay Shastrabuddhi met the Law Commission officials to discuss the ‘one nation, one poll’ issue.  The delegation also submitted Mr Shah’s letter to the Commission and urged that the legal provisions should be amended so that a single election can be held across the country.

 The law panel, which is examining the feasibility of holding simultaneous polls, had sought the views of the political parties before finalising its report.  Both the BJP and Congress had stayed away from consultation organised by the commission in this regard last month. The Congress had met the Commission top brass recently where it had opposed the concept of simultaneous polls. In his letter, Mr Shah stated that holding simultaneous polls is not only a concept, but a principle which can be implemented. 

He claimed that holding two sets of polls was against the federal structure of the country is a “baseless” argument. On the contrary, he said, it would strengthen the federal structure of the country.  Citing example of  Maharashtra, Mr Shah said the state was under the model code of conduct for nearly 307 days in 2016 due to bypolls and local bodies polls, which halted the development work.  He said elections keep taking place throughout the year in one state or the other, usually in one five-term of Lok Sabha, on an average 5 to 7 states go for assembly elections each year along with polls for local bodies.

He also said that India has a tradition of healthy electoral process and there have been examples where one state voted for two different parties for Lok Sabha and assembly polls and cited the example of Karnataka where in 1980, the state chose Congress for the Centre and JD(S) to run the state government, to assert that simultaneous polls will strengthen federalism. 

Mr Shah said the opposition to simultaneous polls seems to be politically motivated.  The BJP chief said that people should not be burdened with the expenditure incurred due to frequent poll process and a developing country like India should focus more on the development process and not by the impact of imposition of the Model Code of Conduct.