Samajwadi Party’s opposition to One Nation One Election is like a fight between weavers without any yarn or cotton. It seems that SP chief Akhilesh Yadav is not getting any serious issue to point out the flaws in One Nation One Election. Akhilesh’s statements against One Nation, One Election are nothing more than empty talk. He wants to create confusion among the public by any means. That is why he is expressing absurd doubts. It seems that Akhilesh is opposing this bill because One Nation One Election is the intention of Modi government. Akhilesh’s intention is political, that is why there is a rift in his party regarding this. Apart from Akhilesh, Samajwadi Party leader Ravidas Mehrotra has openly supported One Nation One Election. It is another matter that the party has washed its hands off Ravidas Mehrotra’s statement by calling it his personal opinion.
Talking about Akhilesh’s harsh words on One Nation One Election, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav has asked, ‘If ‘One Nation, One Nation’ is in principle, then please clarify that elections of all the villages, towns, municipal bodies from Pradhan to Prime Minister will also be held simultaneously. If Akhilesh had read the report, he would have known that it has been recommended to hold elections for Lok Sabha and all the Legislative Assemblies of the country in the first phase and for local bodies within 100 days in the second phase. Akhilesh is asking that if President’s rule is imposed in a state, will the people’s elected government have to wait till the next general elections to come back or will elections be held again in the whole country? Regarding this, it has been clearly stated in the report that if the election of any Legislative Assembly is not held simultaneously due to unavoidable reasons, then it will be held at a later date, but the term will end on the same day when the term of the Lok Sabha ends. If the Legislative Assembly of any state is dissolved in the middle, then new elections will be held only for the remaining term of the Assembly. Akhilesh is asking whether the One Nation One Election scheme is aimed at changing the results of elections by privatizing them? Such apprehensions are arising because tomorrow the government will say that it does not have the human and other necessary resources to conduct elections on such a large scale, that is why we are giving the work of conducting elections on contract (to our people). This is also ridiculous.
It is not that Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections have never been held together. Elections were held together from 1951 to 1967. After that, in 1999, the Law Commission recommended in its report that elections should be held simultaneously in the country, so that development work can continue in the country. One Nation, One Election is not a new thing. Efforts for this had started in 1983 itself and then Indira Gandhi had rejected it. It is being said that holding simultaneous elections will ultimately benefit big national parties like BJP and Congress and it may be difficult for small parties to run local and Lok Sabha election campaigns in many states simultaneously.
Also read: One Nation One Election will change the entire schedule of states, Rajasthan will have 1 year assembly term, UP-Punjab will have 2 years assembly term
However, Congress has said that it strongly opposes the idea of one nation, one election and this idea should not be worked upon. Bahujan Samaj Party, on the other hand, did not completely oppose One Nation One Election in front of the High Level Committee, but it expressed concern about it. Party chief Mayawati posted on the social media website X and said that our party’s stand on the approval of the proposal of the Union Cabinet to conduct Lok Sabha, Assembly and local body elections simultaneously in the country under the system of one country, one election is positive, but its objective must be in the national and public interest.
