Anurag Thakur told NDTV "one nation, one election" will work well
The BJP has been demanding for "one nation, one election" for a long time and Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also supported this call, Union Minister Anurag Thakur told NDTV today.
Mr Thakur's comment comes a day after the government released key details of the eight-member committee, led by former President Ram Nath Kovind, to see whether elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies can be held simultaneously.
"What is the problem in holding simultaneous elections? If elections are held simultaneously, it will save time, money and the government can use the saved time to work for the poor, for the development of the nation," Mr Thakur, the Information and Broadcasting Minister, told NDTV.
Mr Thakur dismissed the Opposition's criticism over the government calling a special session of parliament from September 18 to 22, saying the government has every right to call such a session.
"In fact they should be happy the government has called a parliament session. It is a democratic exercise," Mr Thakur said. He said the "one nation, one nation" committee has members of the Opposition too so that they can give their views.
"But they have left. They don't believe in discussions. They only make noise on the streets, just make allegations and run away. Remember how many days of the monsoon session (of parliament) they had wasted?" Mr Thakur said.
He said the Opposition made similar allegations when the government was working to bring the goods and services tax (GST) regime, a kind of "one nation, one tax".
"Earlier, collecting Rs 90,000 crore was a difficult task. Today, we collect Rs 1.60 lakh crore. This money has been used on developing infrastructure, building homes and toilets for the poor, free vaccines, new airports, new medical colleges, more AIIMS..." the Union Minister said.
The leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has declined to be part of the eight-member committee.
In a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also part of the committee, Mr Chowdhury pointed out that Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge "has been excluded" from the committee, and instead they took former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad.
"This is a deliberate insult to the system of parliamentary democracy," Mr Chowdhury said in the letter.
Congress MP Rahul Gandhi today said the idea of 'one nation, one election' is an attack on the Indian Union and all its states.
The nine-member committee will check whether the amendments to the Constitution would need ratification by the states, according to the government's gazette notification today.
The committee will analyse and recommend possible solutions linked to simultaneous elections if there is a hung house, no-confidence motion, defection, or any such other event.
A single electoral roll and identity card for voters valid for the national, state, civic body and panchayat elections will be explored, the government said in the notification.