New Delhi: Former President of India and head of the ‘One Nation, One Election’ panel Ram Nath Kovind is likely to host the first official meeting of the committee at his residence in Delhi on Wednesday, reported ANI.
The government had constituted an eight-member high-level committee to examine and make recommendations at the earliest on the issue of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats.
The committee will be headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind and will have Home Minister Amit Shah, Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and former Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh as members.
The committee was formed after the government called for a special session of Parliament for five days starting September 18. However, no official announcement has been made regarding the agenda of the session to be held a few days after the G20 summit in the national capital Delhi.
With the BJP government calling a special session of Parliament in September, speculation has run rampant about the purpose of the meeting. As per reports, most of the speculation is focused on the upcoming elections, with some expecting a ‘one nation, one election’ move from the Centre, while others are predicting an early election.
As the name suggests, it means holding state and general elections simultaneously. This required a constitutional amendment that would require parliamentarians to meet in session.
Lok Sabha elections in India are to be held in May next year.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier this week said that the Narendra Modi-led BJP government could hold Lok Sabha elections only in December, claiming that the saffron party has booked all helicopters for campaigning.
The idea of ‘one nation, one election’ has been strongly raised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the last few years and now the reported setting up of the Kovind-led committee will further the plan to gain a firmer footing on the ground.
Elections are to be held in five states in November-December.
However, experts have suggested that the move is likely to harm regional parties, which do not have the monetary power to match national parties, and especially those that are more powerful at the national level.
Research conducted by the IDFC Institute states that if elections are held at a gap of six months, there is a 77 per cent chance that voters will favor the same political party or alliance for both the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha. This figure drops to 61 per cent if elections are held six months apart.
