AAP MP Sanjay Singh slams Centre over high-level committee on ‘One Nation, One Poll’

MP Sanjay Singh on Saturday slammed the BJP-led Central government for forming a high-level committee to explore the feasibility of 'One Nation, One Poll'

New Delhi: Aam Admi Party (AAP) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh on Saturday slammed the BJP-led Central government for forming a high-level committee to explore the feasibility of ‘One Nation, One Poll’ and open up the possibility of advancing Lok Sabha polls so that they can be held with a string of state assembly elections in November-December.

In a message on the social media platform, X, formerly known as Twitter, the AAP leader said: “Modi government’s committee on One Nation One Election is a “dummy committee”. Not keeping the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Shri @kharge ji in this committee is a great insult to him. There is no justification for this committee. Fearful of the India alliance, Modi ji is running a fake debate in the name of (ONOE).” The government on Saturday constituted an eight-member high-level committee to examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections in the country.

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It comes days after the government announced holding a special session of the Parliament from September 18-22 on a day the opposition was holding their 2-day Mumbai conclave. However, the government remained tight-lipped on the issues to be taken up during the session.

Opposition parties slammed the government for holding the special session without informing the Business advisory committee and consulting the opposition leaders.

The members of the committee headed by ex-President Ram Nath Kovind include- Home Minister Amit Shah, Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash C Kashyap, Senior Advocate Harish Salve and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari.

Congress on Saturday questioned why the government has not included party president Mallikarjun Kharge in the eight-member panel saying that the exclusion of Rajya Sabha LoP is an insult to the Parliament.

The Congress also took strong exception to the Centre’s decision to include the former Leader of Rajya Sabha and part of the G-23 dissident group, Ghulam Nabi Azad, instead of Kharge in the committee.

According to the Centre, the HLC shall commence functioning immediately and make recommendations at the earliest.
A government notification said that Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the High-Level Committee as a special invitee.

Meanwhile, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has declined to serve on the panel, saying its ‘terms of reference have been prepared in a manner to guarantee its conclusions’.

In a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Chowdhury said, “I have just got to know through the media and a Gazette notification has appeared that I have been appointed as a Member of the High-Level Committee on simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas. I have no hesitation whatsoever in declining to serve on the Committee whose terms of reference have been prepared in a manner to guarantee its conclusions. It is, I am afraid, a total eyewash.”

The committee has been set up months before assembly polls in five states and ahead of Lok Sabha polls next year.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi had informed about the constitution of the committee on Friday.

Simultaneous elections for the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha were held till 1967. However, in 1968 and 1969 some legislative assemblies were dissolved prematurely followed by the dissolution of the Lok Sabha in 1970. This forced a change in electoral schedules for the states and the country.