For representational purposes (Photo | Nagaraj Gadekal)

Telangana's TRS says aye to simultaneous polls’ proposal

TRS has fully backed the proposal of the Centre and the Law Commission of India for conduct of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

HYDERABAD: TRS has fully backed the proposal of the Centre and the Law Commission of India for conduct of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies. If elections are held to LS and State Assemblies concurrently, it will save not only money but also time, the party has said.

Party MP B Vinod Kumar, who participated in the all-party meeting conducted by the Law Commission in Delhi on Sunday on the proposal, handed over a letter written in this regard by CM K Chandrasekhar Rao to justice BS Chauhan, chairman of the commission.

“We all know that four to six months are spent on conducting elections to Lok Sabha and the respective State legislatures. Thus, the entire administrative machinery remains busy with conduct of polls twice in a period of five years. Likewise, imposition of model code of conduct for such a long period also hampers the developmental and welfare activities,” KCR mentioned in the letter.

Vinod said later that holding simultaneous polls would not pose any problem to the people of the two Telugu-speaking states and recalled that they had witnessed concurrent polls to the then united state Assembly and the Lok Sabha in 1999, 2004 and 2009.

Not a Modi idea, asserts Vinod

Interestingly, at a time when the ruling TDP in Andhra Pradesh is accusing the BJP of thrusting concurrent polls on states to weaken the regional parties in various states, TRS MP Vinod Kumar came to the rescue of the NDA government at the Centre by saying, “Some people are saying that holding concurrent polls is the agenda of prime minister Narendra Modi and BJP. That is wrong.

The proposal has been there for several years. The Law Commission has been promoting debates on this subject since 1983. The issue was many times discussed at NITI Aayog meetings,” he said and recalled that the country had witnessed concurrent polls to the Lok Sabha and Assemblies of various states several times between 1952 and 1968

TDP says No!

Meanwhile, opposing the Centre’s proposal to hold simultaneous polls to, the ruling Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh has said it is a BJP conspiracy to destabilise regional parties. “Conducting simultaneous polls will be a severe blow to the rights of States,’’ TDP MPs Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar and Thota Narasimham said in New Delhi after meeting the Law Commission.

They, however, said the party is not against holding elections to the State Assembly along with Lok Sabha elections in 2019. The MPs also added that the TDP is ready to face early Lok Sabha elections. In the representation submitted to the Law Commission, the TDP MPs listed how various governments at the Centre under Atal Bihari Vaypayee and HD Dewe Gowda collapsed without completing the five-year tenure