A three-member Communist Party of India (Marxist) delegation met the High Level Committee looking into the prospects regarding the One Nation, One Election idea. The party reiterated their serious objection to the proposal to conduct simultaneous elections, accusing the committee of working on a “pre-decided and predestined” agenda.
Party General Secretary Sitaram Yechury along with Polit Bureau member Nilotpal Basu and central secretariat member Muralidharan met the committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind.
The CPI(M) delegation broadly raised four issues on the issue. “This exercise has been conducted at least thrice before including once by the Law Commission, and it has been found that holding simultaneous polls is not feasible. The mandate of this committee is pre-decided on how to implement it, which is highly objectionable,” Mr. Yechury said.
Mr. Yechury contended that “One Nation, One Election” is anti-democratic, since extending or shortening the terms of the assemblies goes against the people’s mandate. It is also “anti-federal” because this could inhibit the regional parties. “They must remember that the Constitution does not have fixity of tenure either for the Parliament or the State. The only thing fix is that elections have to be conducted within five years. If a government falls for some reason they have to take a fresh mandate,” he said.
The introduction of simultaneous elections will need amendments to four Articles of the Indian Constitution, which in turn needs approval of the 2/3rd of the States. “And the most critical question is what about Article 356 [that allows for imposition of President’s Rule]. The first two elections were simultaneous, this trend broke only because of imposition of the President’s rule,” Mr. Yechury added.
