Nitish not averse to simultaneous Lok Sabha, Assembly polls

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday favoured the move to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. His statement assumes significance as there has been wide speculation that the election to the Bihar Assembly, whose term ends in November 2020, may be advanced and go to polls along with the Lok Sabha elections in May 2019.

“If the elections to the Lok Sabha and Assembly are held together, it will not only save time, money and energy but help in carrying out development activities in an unhindered manner once the poll process is over,” said Nitish. He was speaking on the sidelines of his weekly public interface programme called Lok Samvad.

Nitish, however, clarified that he would prefer simultaneous polls from 2024 onwards, not 2019.

“I would rather suggest that even Panchayat elections should also be tagged along with the Assembly and Parliamentary polls so as to minimise the election expenses,” opined Nitish.

This is seen as a major climbdown by the JD (U) strongman who, when in Grand Alliance, had opposed the idea of simultaneous Assembly and Parliamentary polls on the plea that the move needed a constitutional amendment and should be ratified by more than half of the States in India.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a staunch votary of simultaneous polls. The Assembly elections are due in at least five states in 2018 and as many in 2019. The BJP feels the time is ripe to hold simultaneous polls with some of the Assembly term being truncated.

Nitish also supported Modi to keep petroleum products outside the purview of the GST. Of late, the PM has been facing flak for the exorbitant price of oil due to more than 130 percent tax on fuel even though the crude has nosedived since 2014.

“I don’t think it’s advisable to bring oil products within the ambit of GST. When a policy decision has been made to revise petroleum price daily, everyone should follow it. Someday it will go up, sometimes the price will come down,” argued Nitish.

Speaking against ‘dynasty’, Nitish said he never favoured nepotism. “In fact, it’s the Congress which gave birth to dynasty. Otherwise, there have been examples where people from humble backgrounds have reached the top post,” averred the Bihar Chief Minister.