AAP leader Pankaj Kumar Gupta made the statement in response to High-Level Committee (HLC) on ‘One Nation One Election’ secretary Niten Chandra’s letter to party’s national convenor
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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has said it strongly opposed the idea of the ‘One Nation One Election’ as it will “damage the parliamentary democracy, basic structure of the Constitution and federal polity of the country.”
AAP leader Pankaj Kumar Gupta made the statement in response to High-Level Committee (HLC) on ‘One Nation One Election’ secretary Niten Chandra’s letter to party’s national convenor and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on 18th October, 2023 through which he invited suggestions relating to holding of elections simultaneously in the country.
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Gupta asserted the ‘One Nation One Election’ will be unable to deal with hung legislature, which will actively encourage the evil of anti-defection and open buying-selling of MLAs and MPs.
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Cost sought to be saved by simultaneous polls is a mere 0.1 per cent of Government of India’s annual budget, he claimed.
“AAP strongly reiterate that tenets of constitution and democracy cannot be sacrificed for financial gains and administrative convenience. We once again appeal to the HLC to peruse all the suggestions made in an unbiased and non-partisan manner, and privilege the safeguarding of the constitutional principles as envisioned by our founding fathers over narrow arguments of administrative efficiency,” Gupta said.
Underlining that India is a proud democracy that has inspired nations all over the world for the last 75 years, he said, “It is our collective duty to uphold and strengthen those principles that have served us well over the past seven decades.”
Notably, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge had said his party strongly opposed the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ and demanded that the High-Level Committee (HLC) constituted by the Centre over the matter should be dissolved.
Kharge had urged the chairman of the HLC and former President Ram Nath Kovind not to allow “his persona and the office of former President to be abused by the government to subvert the constitution and parliamentary democracy in the country”.
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