Idea of simultaneous polls undemocractic, says Kharge

Calling the idea of holding simultaneous elections as ‘undemocratic’ and against the guarantees of federalism and the basic structure of the Constitution, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge demanded dissolution of the high-powered committee formed to study it.

In a letter to the secretary of the committee on one nation, one election, he requested former president Ram Nath Kovind, who heads the panel, “not to allow his persona and the office of the former president of India to be abused by the Union government to subvert the constitution and parliamentary democracy in this country”.

“The Indian National Congress is strongly opposed to the very idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’. For the sake of maintaining a thriving and a robust democracy, it is imperative that the entire idea must be abandoned and the high-powered committee dissolved,” Kharge said in his letter to Niten Chandra, the secretary of the committee.

The letter is in response to Chandra’s letter on October 18 whereby he had invited suggestions for consideration of the committee.

He said the committee seems to have “already made up its mind and seeking a consultation seems to be an eye wash”.

“The government, parliament and ECI should work together to ensure people’s mandate is respected rather than divert people’s attention by talking about undemocratic ideas like simultaneous elections,” Kharge said.

He said that the composition of the committee is “biased” since the opposition parties, the leaders of the state governments that the committee’s recommendations would impact, were not given enough representation when the committee was constituted.

“When the committee is headed by no less than the former President of India, it is distressing when even common voters feel the consultations of the committee are likely to be a pretence since minds have already been made up. Firm views in support of the proposal have already been expressed in public and a dispassionate analysis of pros and cons is not being attempted in a serious and systematic manner,” the Congress chief said in his response.

He said the only times in the past ten years that the house has lost faith in the chief ministers have been in cases when a specific party has misused the resources available to it and twisted the anti-defection statute in order to “steal” the mandate of the people.

“There is no place for the concept of simultaneous elections in a country that has adopted a Parliamentary system of government. Such forms of simultaneous elections that are being floated by the government go against the guarantees of federalism contained in the Constitution,” Kharge asserted.

With inputs from News18

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