Idea of 'one nation, one poll' attack on India's federal structure: Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge

Tribune News Service

Shubhadeep Choudhury

New Delhi, September 3

The Congress on Sunday said the move by the Narendra Modi government for holding simultaneous polls was an attack on the country’s federal structure.

“The Modi government wants the democratic India to slowly turn into a dictatorship. This gimmick of forming a committee on ‘one nation, one election’ is a subterfuge for dismantling the federal structure of India,” Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said in a post on ‘X’ (formerly Twitter).

Congress leader and former party president Rahul Gandhi said the move was an attack on the Indian union and all member states. “India, that is Bharat, is a union of states. The idea of ‘one nation, one election’ is an attack on the union of all states,” Rahul said in a post on ‘X’.

Kharge said the BJP had a habit of overthrowing elected governments by disregarding the mandate of the people. As many as 436 bypolls have been held since 2014, he said. “This inherent greed for power in the BJP has already vitiated our politics and has rendered the anti-defection law toothless,” Kharge noted.

“India is world’s largest democracy. It has lakhs of elected representatives and their future cannot be determined in one go,” Kharge said.

Noting that the Rs 5,500 crore expenditure incurred by the Election Commission in conducting all elections between 2014 and 2019 (including the 2019 Lok Sabha poll) was only a fraction of government’s budget expenditure, Kharge said it made government’s cost-saving logic “penny wise, pound foolish”.

“If the model code of conduct is the problem, it can be changed either by shortening the length of the moratorium or by relaxing the kinds of developmental activities permitted during the election season. All political parties can reach a wider consensus in this regard,” Kharge said.

He said “like other disruptive ideas of Prime Minister Modi”, the one nation, one election’ plan too would turn out to be a “disaster”. “The idea has been extensively examined and rejected by three committees in the past. It remains to be seen whether the fourth one has been constituted with a pre-determined outcome in mind,” Kharge, who is also Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said.

Bid to turn India into dictatorship

The government wants the democratic India to slowly turn into a dictatorship. This gimmick of forming a committee on ‘one nation, one election’ is a subterfuge for dismantling the federal structure of India. — Mallikarjun Kharge, Cong chief

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