TMC, CPM, SP Lodge Formal Protest against Centre's 'One Nation One Election' Move

Several opposition parties opposed the Centre’s move to conduct simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls saying it goes against the federal structure of Indian democracy, writes ETV Bharat's Gautam Debroy.

New Delhi:Three opposition parties, including Trinamool Congress (TMC), Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) and Samajwadi Party (SP), on Tuesday formally lodged their objection against the 'One Nation One Election' policy mooted by the Central government.

Reiterating their opposition to the policy for simultaneous election to the High-Level Committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, all three parties said that the policy goes against the federal structure of Indian democracy. “We believe that such a proposal is inherently anti-democratic and negates the principles of federalism, which is a fundamental feature of our Constitution,” told CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury while speaking to ETV Bharat.

Yechury was accompanied by party’s Politburo member Nilotpal Basu and Central Secretariat member Muralidharan in the meeting. “The argument against enforcing simultaneous elections for Parliament and the state legislatures is impractical. The basic objection to the concept is that it is fundamentally anti-democratic and strikes at the root of the parliamentary democratic system as ordained in the Constitution,” Yechury said.

Terming the initiative as a hidden agenda of the BJP to establish a “dictatorial” form of government in the country, TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Banerjee said that their party will always oppose the 'One Nation One Election' policy.

“Any attempt to prolong the life of the Lok Sabha or Legislature will be not only unconstitutional but anti-democratic. It is the will of the people through their elected representatives that must prevail,” said Kalyan Banerjee.

Both Bandyopadhyay and Banerjee attended the meeting after West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was supposed to attend the meeting, cancelled her trip to Delhi at the last moment due to state budget-related work.

“We appeared before the committee headed by the former President. We referred to the letter written by our leader Mamata Banerjee. We said very categorically that we are opposing the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’. There is a hidden agenda to form a dictatorship government in future," Banerjee said.

The representatives from the Samajwadi Party (SP) presented party chief Akhilesh Yadav’s letter to the committee saying that regional or local issues would be sidelined in favour of national ones.

“Apart from several constitutional amendments, the 'One Nation One Election' concept will also bring other challenges, too. We need to do a constitutional amendment, even if there is a necessity to extend the tenure of the State Assembly or Lok Sabha even for a day. If there is a fall of the government in a particular State, what will be the constitutional arrangements…”, said SP State Secretary KK Srivastava.

All the members of the High-Level Committee were present in the meeting that took place with TMC, CPM and SP separately. It is worth mentioning that Congress has also vehemently opposed the move of conducting simultaneous elections in the country.