No mention of simultaneous polls in 11 states in Shah's letter to law panel: BJP

Shah, in his letter, had emphasised that with multiple elections happening throughout the year, the Model Code of Conduct impedes the government's developmental work.

BJP President Amit Shah (PTI Photo/ File)

NEW DELHI: The ruling BJP on Tuesday clarified that its president Amit Shah in a letter to the Law Commission didn't demand simultaneous elections in 11 states in 2019. BJP spokesperson Samit Patra said that Shah's letter to the law panel had no mention of holding assembly elections in as many as eleven states simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year. Patra, however, said the BJP does favour the concept of "one nation, one election", adding that holding simultaneous polls was also successfully practised between 1952 and 1967. "President Ram Nath Kovind and former President Pranab Mukherjee have all supported the idea of one nation, one election," he said. Sources had on Monday claimed that the Centre is planning to hold elections to the Lok Sabha along with 11 state assemblies.

Amit Shah on Monday wrote a letter to the Law Commission in which he stated that the BJP is committed to this idea and explicitly believes that in a progressive democracy like India elections should be held at a fixed time and for a fixed tenure so that people's representatives can carry out their duties effectively. Shah, in his letter, had emphasised that with multiple elections happening throughout the year, the Model Code of Conduct impedes the government's developmental work. In the letter, written in Hindi, the BJP chief cited the examples of Indonesia, Sweden, South Africa, Belgium and Italy where simultaneous elections have proved to be successful. Shah further elucidated how One Nation One Election is not akin to the Indian electoral system. Shah said that in India elections keep taking place throughout the year in one state or the other, usually in one five-term of Lok Sabha, on an average 5 to 7 states go for assembly elections each year along with polls for local bodies. Notably, the assembly elections in most of the states in India take place either few months before or after the Lok Sabha elections. Legislative assembly elections in states like Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram, and Chhattisgarh, take place 4-6 months prior the Lok Sabha elections, while people in states like Odisha, Andra Pradesh and Telangana vote simultaneously. On the other hand, Haryana, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand are the states in which Indian electorate choose the members of the Vidhan Sabha around 6 months after the Lok Sabha Elections. Congress dares PM Modi to dissolve Lok Sabha Meanwhile, the Congress on Tuesday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dissolve the LokSabha early and announce general elections along with polls in four states where the terms of the assemblies end this year. Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot said postponing the upcoming state assembly elections and conducting these with Lok Sabha polls in 2019 is "not possible" under the Constitution or the law. He said elections in Mizoram, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh will have to be conducted before the terms of these assemblies end. "There is only one way of holding simultaneous elections. The prime minister should dissolve the Lok Sabha and hold polls along with the four state assembly elections," Gehlot told a press conference. "The Congress will welcome it. We are prepared," he said.