PM Narendra Modi’s ‘One Nation, One Election’ idea faces opposition
NEW DELHI : Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with political parties on the ‘One Nation, One Election’ idea, the Congress-led UPA and the Trinamool Congress have opposed the concept.
Newly appointed leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Ahir Ranjan Choudhary told reporters after a meeting of the UPA chaired by Sonia Gandhi that the parties were opposed to the idea in principle.
Since some issues are to be sorted out, the UPA will meet again on Wednesday morning to discuss the issue further and take a common stand at the meeting called by Modi in the evening, said Chaudhary.
After the BJP’s staggering victory in the Lok Sabha election, the Opposition gathered for the first time on Tuesday to discuss its Parliamentary strategy, especially with regard to the all-party meeting convened by PM Narendra Modi on Wednesday on the contentious proposal for “one nation, one election”.
DMK, the second largest party in the UPA, and other Congress allies like NCP, IUML attended the meeting. Prominent leaders who attended the meeting included UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, K Suresh, all from the Congress party, TR Baalu, Kanimozhi of DMK, Supriya Sule of NCP, Farooq Abdullah of NC, Thirumaavalan Thol (VCK), NK Premachandran ( RSP), PK Kunhalikutty (IUML), and Thomas Chazhikadan of KC-M.
Earlier, TMC chief Mamata Banerjee wrote a letter to the government saying that she would not be able to attend the meeting called to discuss the issue of ‘One Nation, One Election’ idea.
In her letter to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, she said: “Response on such a sensitive and serious subject like ‘One Country and One Election’ in such a short time would not do justice to the subject it deserves.” She said that the matter required consultations with the Constitutional experts, election experts, and all the party members.
“Instead of doing the matter hurriedly, I would like to request you to kindly circulate a white paper on the subject to all political parties inviting their views by providing adequate time.””If you only do so, we will be able to give concrete suggestions on this important subject,” the letter further read.
The Central government has called a meeting of the presidents of all parties to discuss the idea of ‘One Country, One Election’ along with other issues of national importance on June 19.
Meanwhile, United Progressive Alliance Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday chaired a meeting of leaders of constituent parties and other allies to discuss their floor plan during the Budget Session.
Party sources said that the leaders discussed the opposition plans to deal with the BJP-led NDA in Parliament during the Budget Session on issues like ‘one nation, one election’, triple talaq and others. In the Budget session, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha would have 30 and 27 sittings respectively between June 17 and July 26.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during the all-party meeting in Parliament, told the floor leaders of different parties to keep political differences aside and not disrupt the functioning of the two Houses. He also urged all political parties to work cohesively with the government for a smooth functioning of the Parliament.(With Agency Inputs ).
