Chennai: The ruling AIADMK and the opposition DMK will present a united stand before the Law Commission during its two-day deliberations starting Saturday at Delhi on holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies — they will both oppose the idea. However, they differ in their reasoning for rubbishing the proposal being pushed by the BJP Government.
Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha Thambidurai and State Law Minister C. V. Shanmugam, along with Parliament members Venugopal and Navaneethakrishnan, will represent the AIADMK at the meeting with the Law Commission at 3.30 pm on Saturday. The DMK viewpoint will be presented by 'Trichy' Siva at about 11.30 a.m. the following day.
While the AIADMK is against the simultaneous elections-the one nation, one election proposal-because it would cut short the present mandate by over two years, the DMK opposes the idea as it would lead to “a dangerous situation where the destinies of the state Assemblies could get tied up with that of the Centre”.
Elaborating his party stand on the tricky issue, DMK spokesman TKS Elangovan told DC: “It would be dangerous to accept this proposal, which is unwarranted and unnecessary. Just to ensure that the entire country must have one election, the State Assemblies too could get dissolved if the Government at the Centre falls due to the ruling party losing majority or some other reason,” he said.
State Law Minister Shanmugam said the AIADMK would continue with its late leader Jayalalithaa’s policy on this issue. “Amma had said there is no objection to holding elections simultaneously to the Lok Sabha and the State Assemblies; but, we are certainly opposed to the idea of implementing this proposal right away, immediately now. We still have time till 2021 for the present Assembly in Tamil Nadu and why should we cut short this people’s mandate for five years? We will argue our stand before the Law Commission on Saturday”, he told DC.
