Modi to set up panel on 'one nation, one poll'

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced the setting up of a committee to discuss the ‘one country, one election’ theme and give suggestions in a “time-bound manner”.

But a meeting of party chiefs called to discuss this and other issues was skipped by top Opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee.

The presidents of 40 parties were invited to the meeting with the prime minister, but 19 of them, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, gave it a miss. From the Opposition camp, NCP, CPM, CPI and RSP attended. Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray did not attend as he was busy with his party’s Foundation Day celebrations in Mumbai.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who briefed the media after the four-hour meeting, said 21 party chiefs attended the meet while three others who could not make it sent in suggestions in writing. Most of those who attended the meeting supported the idea of ‘one nation, one election’, he said.

Rajnath suggested that the CPM and the CPI had a difference of opinion but did not oppose the idea. He said they had issues with its implementation. This was disputed by CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury who said it was a “distorted version”.

“The government is not at all clear about the concept. It is only a slogan now. It is bringing the presidential form through the backdoor. Any suppression of the will of people is undemocratic and against federalism,” Yechury told reporters.

At the meeting, sources said Modi told the leaders that it was not “my agenda or my party’s agenda” but an issue of national importance and the views of all parties would be considered and given due importance.

“Modi said there was so much of wastage of money and no time for governance due to frequent elections,” a senior Opposition leader said. “Several party presidents supported the proposal for simultaneous conduct of elections. Several parties were also of the view that all aspects of the proposal need to be examined carefully,” an official statement said.

The meeting was called with an agenda to discuss simultaneous polls, ways to improve productivity of Parliament, building a new India in the 75th year of Independence, programmes and commitments to celebrate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary and the development of aspirational districts.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy is learnt to have supported the idea of simultaneous polls but he also wanted a comprehensive rewriting of the anti-defection
law. Sources said the party wanted any member who joins another party to first quit the post and then switch. Otherwise, a decision on whether or not to disqualify him should be taken within 30 minutes.

Yechury objected to the issue of central monitoring of the development of aspirational districts, saying it was leaving the states out of the scheme of things.