Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has 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, who is also the Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, also 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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The Congress president made the statement in response to HLC secretary Niten Chandra’s letter to him on 18th October, 2023 through which he invited suggestions for consideration of the panel constituted for the purpose of the ‘One Nation, One Election’.

In his letter addressed to the secretary on 17th January, Kharge wrote, “We are distressed to state that the composition of the High-Level Committee on ‘One Nation One Election’ seems highly biased without giving substantial representation to the Opposition parties that head various state governments that would be affected by the recommendations of this committee.”

“When the committee is headed by no less than the former President of India, it is distressing when even common voters feel the consultations of the committee are likely to be a pretence since minds have already been made up. Firm views in support of the proposal have already been expressed in public and a dispassionate analysis of pros and cons is not being attempted in a serious and systematic manner,” he said.

Claiming that the former President Kovind while addressing the joint session of the Parliament in 2018 had advocated for simultaneous elections saying frequent elections impede development process, Kharge said, “Your letter also repeats the same point. We would like to submit that the development process and governance is being brought to a standstill frequently because Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) is actively involved in electioneering rather than governance.”

The argument that the cost of conducting elections are extremely high seems baseless, he asserted.

Asserting that the holding of simultaneous elections would require the dissolution of several legislative assemblies which are still halfway (or less) through their terms, he said this would be a ‘betrayal’ of the electorate in those states. The Constitution nowhere authorises the Union Government to dissolve the state assemblies or to suspend the state governments, except under the emergency clauses.”

“There is no place for the concept of simultaneous elections in a country that has adopted a Parliamentary system of government. Such forms of simultaneous elections that are being floated by the government go against the guarantees of federalism contained in the Constitution,” he said.

In a veiled attack on the BJP, Kharge said, “In the last 10 years, the only instances where the Chief Ministers have lost the confidence of the house have been when one particular party has abused the government machinery at its disposal and subverted the anti-defection law to steal people’s mandate. The government, parliament and ECI should work together to ensure people’s mandate is respected rather than divert people’s attention by talking about undemocratic ideas like simultaneous elections.”

“The government and this committee should have been honest in stating at the outset that what they are attempting goes against the basic structure of the Constitution and will require substantial changes to the basic structure of the Constitution if simultaneous elections have to be implemented,” he added.