New Delhi: In a setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘one nation, one poll’ idea, key NDA constituent Shiv Sena opposed it in the Rajya Sabha Tuesday. Sena MP Sanjay Raut questioned its “feasibility” in a country that has “so many states”.
Raut asked if it was possible to implement Modi’s idea in a country where governments can be formed and pulled down by a single vote. The focus of this government he argued, should rather be to review the election process as well as the model code of conduct.
“One nation, one election can be taken up later,” he said.
Modi had made a fresh pitch for holding synchronised, simultaneous polls in the country at the all-party meet on 19 June. President Ram Nath Kovind, while addressing both Houses of Parliament last week, had also raised the idea of ‘one nation, one election’ along with a host of other issues.
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The concept of simultaneous polls refers to an arrangement in which a citizen casts her or his vote for all the three tiers of government — the Lok Sabha, the state legislature and the municipal bodies or panchayats — on the same day.
But polls to municipal bodies and panchayats are organised by the state election commissions and not the central Election Commission. So, these elections have been kept out of discussion on simultaneous polls.
In the current discourse, simultaneous polls would only refer to concurrent conduct of the Lok Sabha and all state assembly elections.
‘Withdraw special status of J&K’
Raut also argued that the special status given to Jammu and Kashmir must be withdrawn.
Maintaining that the country needs both “Gandhiji and Savarkar”, he said, “Nehru (Jawaharlal Nehru) did not spend time in a dungeon but Savarkar did and that too for 10 years. We want both Gandhi and Savarkar,” he said.
The Rajya Sabha MP further argued that Kashmir should not get a special status since it is a part of India.
“Kashmir humko dhamkata hai ki hum Pakistan join kar lenge, toot foot jayenge, ab ye dhamkiya nahi chalegi (Kashmir threatens the rest of the country that it will become a part of Pakistan. Such threats will no longer be tolerated),” he said.
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