Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government at the Centre over its decision to form a committee to consider the proposal for holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly elections in the country.
“INDIA, that is Bharat, is a Union of States. The idea of ‘one nation, one election’ is an attack on the Union and all its States,” he said on X (formerly Twitter)
The Centre on Saturday constituted a high-powered committee, headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, to examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections in the country.
The committee includes Union Home Minister Amit Shah; former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad; former Finance Commission chairman N K Singh, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash C Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve and former chief vigilance commissioner Sanjay Kothari. Congress Leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury opted out of the panel, calling it eyewash.
The notification of the high-powered panel by the Centre came just days after it announced a special session of the Parliament from 18-22 September, on the same day the two-day Mumbai conclave of the INDIA bloc was in progress.
However, the government remained tight-lipped on the issues to be taken up during the special session.
Opposition leaders slammed the BJP-led Centre for announcing a special session without holding prior consultations with them or informing the Business Advisory Committee.
According to the Centre, the high-level committee shall start functioning immediately and make recommendations at the earliest.
Further, according to the official notification, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the committee as a special invitee.