‘Pre-determined, pre-packaged’: Chidambaram slams BJP over ‘one nation, one election’

Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday hit out at the BJP over the 'one nation, one election' move.

New Delhi: Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Saturday hit out at the BJP over the ‘one nation, one election’ move, alleging that like every other issue “sponsored by the BJP”, this seems to be “pre-determined and pre-packaged”.

His attack came after the government notified 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.

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The committee will be headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind and will have Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad and former finance commission chairman N K Singh as members.

In a post on X, Chidambaram said, “The question of One Nation, One Election is a political-legal question. Actually, it is more political than legal.” Whether the question deserves to be considered at this stage is highly debatable, the former Union minister said. “All major political parties are stakeholders in this issue and they have not been consulted in forming the 8 member Committee. The 8-member Committee has just one member from a major Opposition political party,” he said. “Besides, I am able to recognise only one acknowledged Constitutional Lawyer in the committee,” Chidambaram said.

Like every other “issue sponsored by the BJP”, the issue of ‘one nation, one election’ seems to be a “predetermined and pre-packaged” issue, he alleged. The notification said the panel will commence functioning immediately and make recommendations “at the earliest”, but did not specify a timeframe to submit the report. The opposition alliance had slammed the decision announced on Friday to form a committee under Kovind as a “threat” to the country’s federal structure.