New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has yet again pressed for simultaneous polls. Addressing experts from different sectors at Niti Aayog on Thursday evening, the Prime Minister asked experts to build pressure for holding simultaneous elections for Parliament and state Assemblies.
The meeting was attended by several Union ministers including Arun Jaitley, Nitin Gadkari and Suresh Prabhu, economists and experts from different fields.
Mr Ravi Pokharna, executive head of the Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhani project of the RSS, who attended the meet, said Mr Modi talked about benefits of holding simultaneous elections for about 20 minutes.
“Mr Modi also spoke about difficulties faced due to imposition of Model Code of Conduct for three elections (local bodies, Assembly and Parliament) in a state and due to state Assembly polls in other state,” said Mr Pokharna.
Citing difficulties in running state administration due to the Assembly polls in different parts of country, Mr Modi shared his experience as the chief minister and said that he observed about 80 top officers were out on nearly to 90 days adversely affecting functioning of administration.
Simultaneous polls: No unity on reform yet
Mr Modi appealed to experts present there saying that they are the opinion makers and should build pressure upon all political groups for this reform for betterment of the country.
BJP national vice-president and Rajya Sabha member, Dr Vinay Sahasrabuddhe told this newspaper majority of political parties agreed to the concept but they have some doubts and its implementation also requires constitutional amendments which can be done if consensus is made.
Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhani, a RSS affiliated organisation, organising national seminar on “One Nation One Election” at its campus near Mumbai. The seminar will be attended by constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap, Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda of BJD, K.C. Tyagi of JDU, Gurudas Kamat of Congress and others.
