New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday voiced his opposition to the central government’s “One Nation, One Election” idea. He alleged that the idea is an attack on the Union and all its states.
The Congress leader, in a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), wrote, “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.”
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.
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 3, 2023
Earlier on Saturday, the Central Government established an eight-member High-Level Committee (HLC) tasked with examining the issue of ‘one nation, one election’ and providing recommendations for conducting simultaneous elections across the nation.
The committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind includes Union Home Minister Amit Shah, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh,former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash C Kashyap, Senior Advocate Harish Salve, and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari.
The HLC also included Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury. Chowdhury later turned down the invitation to join the High-Level Committee (HLC) formed by the Central Government to assess the ‘one nation, one election’ issue.
Chowdury questioned the centre’s motives in forming the committee in a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah.
“I have just got to know through the media and a Gazette notification has appeared that I have been appointed as a Member of the High-Level Committee on simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabhas. I have no hesitation whatsoever in declining to serve on the Committee whose terms of reference have been prepared in a manner to guarantee its conclusions. It is, I am afraid, a total eyewash,” Chowdhury said.
“The sudden attempt to thrust a constitutionally suspect, pragmatically non-feasible and logistically unimplementable idea on the nation, months before the general elections, raises serious concerns about ulterior motives of the government,” he added.
