Modi to discuss ‘one nation, one poll’ plan with chiefs of parties today, Mamata demands white paper

In a clear indication of the difficult road ahead for its implementation, the Opposition on Tuesday decided to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious “one nation, one election” proposal, for which he would make the first serious push during his meeting with party presidents on Wednesday.

The decision was taken unanimously at a meeting of the Opposition parties convened by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and attended by leaders from Congress, TMC, DMK, NCP, NC, RSP, Left and others.

However, BJP’s allies like JD(U), Shiv Sena and Shiromani Akali Dal are on board the PM’s plan.  So are those like Samajwadi Party, BJD and TRS.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said the parties were opposed to the idea in principle. “Since some issues are to be sorted out, the UPA will meet again on Wednesday morning to discuss the issue further and take a common stand at the meeting called by Modi in the evening.”

The Opposition’s tone was set during the day itself with West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee excusing herself from attending the meeting citing lack of sufficient time to come up with a “proper response” to the matter and calling for circulation of a white paper on the subject to all political parties inviting their views by providing adequate time to respond if the Centre indeed wanted “concrete suggestions”.

In her letter to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, who had sent out invites to all party presidents, she said such a “serious and sensitive subject” required consultation with constitutional and election experts and that to frame a proper response, she needed to consult all the members of her party.

The PM will be meeting with presidents of political parties having at least one Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha member on the issue.

The Left parties — CPM, CPI — are strongly opposed to the idea but their presidents Sitaram Yechury and Sudhakar Reddy may, however, join the deliberations. The Left parties term the proposal totally “unrealistic and non-practical” one.  The CPM Politburo in a detailed statement said this proposal is not workable as the duration of the Lok Sabha and Assemblies are based on the floor strength. When the Government loses majority, elections have to be conducted within six months. They cited how in 1996, 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha elections had to be held when Governments lost the majority.

CPI national secretary D Raja said, “We will oppose this proposal, which is already rejected by many parties as it is totally non-practical.”

The main Opposition Congress said the idea per se is not bad but has preferred to go along with consensus of the Opposition parties. But the Congress was yet to name its representative for the meeting for want of a party chief following Rahul Gandhi’s resignation. 

BJD chief and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will be here to attend the meeting, party leaders said. But Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray would not make it as he is busy with party’s foundation day events. Sanjay Raut is likely to represent the party.

Whether Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav joins it remains to be seen even as BSP chief Mayawati’s presence is uncertain.

The idea of simultaneous polls of Lok Sabha and State assemblies is also fraught with many hurdles including constitutional and legal. On the plus side, its backers contend it would save the country from being continuously in “an election mode”, could save an estimated Rs 4,500 crore as election expenditure and would help in developmental works not getting affected.

In the previous Lok Sabha, a Parliamentary panel headed by BJP MP Bhupender Yadav had initiated the process to come out with recommendations, entailing major changes in legal provisions, to hold one-time Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the country.

Politically, many Opposition parties are apprehensive of the “one nation, one election” apprehending national polls  issues could subsume Assembly poll issues and thus could marginalise or prove to be disadvantageous to the regional parties.