Simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in India? CEC OP Rawat says, 'No chance at all'

Simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls: The Lok Sabha elections are due in April-May next year while Assembly polls to Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram are scheduled to be held later this year.

Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat (PTI)

Aurangabad: Putting to rest all speculation, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat today emphatically ruled out the possibility of holding simultaneous elections to the state assemblies along with the Lok Sabha polls without a "legal framework" in place. "Koi chance nahi" (no chance at all), Rawat told a select media meet in Aurangabad when asked if it was still feasible to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections. The Lok Sabha elections are due in April-May next year while Assembly polls to Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram are scheduled to be held later this year. Earlier, it was being speculated that the legislative assembly elections in many states were likely to be held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections next year. Notably, the assembly elections in most of the states in India take place either few months before or after the Lok Sabha elections. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah had also wrote a letter to Law Commission Chairman B S Chauhan batting for One Nation One Election system in the country. 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 had cited the examples of Indonesia, Sweden, South Africa, Belgium and Italy where simultaneous elections have proved to be successful. Shah had further elucidated how One Nation One Election is not a kin to the Indian electoral system. Shah had 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.