Congress opposes ‘One Nation, One Election’, calls it a threat to democracy and federalism

News Desk TTP

The Congress party has strongly opposed the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’, which proposes to hold simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies in the country. The party has written a letter to the high-level committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which is studying the feasibility of the idea, and demanded that the committee be dissolved and the idea be abandoned.

The letter, written by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, said that the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ was ‘undemocratic’ and ‘against the basic structure of the Constitution’. He said that the idea violated the guarantees of federalism and the rights of the states to decide their own electoral calendar. He also said that the idea would undermine the diversity and plurality of the country and the representation of the regional parties and interests.

Kharge also criticized the composition and functioning of the committee, which was formed by the Union government in August 2022, without consulting the opposition parties or the state governments. He said that the committee was biased and had already made up its mind in favour of the idea, without conducting a serious and systematic analysis of the pros and cons. He said that the committee’s consultations were a ‘pretense’ and an ‘eyewash’.

He also accused the Union government of trying to use the committee and the former President’s office to ‘subvert the Constitution and parliamentary democracy’ in the country. He said that the government was diverting the attention of the people from the real issues of the country, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, the economic crisis, the farmers’ protests, and the border disputes.

He urged the former President to not allow his ‘persona and the office of the former President of India to be abused by the Union government’ and to dissolve the committee. He also appealed to the government, the Parliament, and the Election Commission to work together to ensure that the people’s mandate was respected and protected, rather than talking about ‘undemocratic ideas like simultaneous elections’.