AHMEDABAD: While the BJP-backed Gujarat government pitched the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal as a “national necessity” to reduce election burden and speed up development, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party launched a fierce counterattack, calling it an attempt to centralise power and weaken the federal structure of the Constitution.
The JPC, headed by senior advocate and BJP MP P P Chaudhary, met Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Deputy Chief Minister, cabinet ministers, MLAs and representatives of opposition parties in Gandhinagar as the Centre pushed forward with consultations on synchronizing Lok Sabha, Assembly and local body elections across the country.
The committee, comprising 39 members including 27 Lok Sabha MPs and 12 Rajya Sabha MPs has been touring different states to gather political feedback before finalizing its recommendations on one of the Modi government’s most politically sensitive constitutional reform proposals.
The Gujarat government openly backed the proposal, projecting it as a reform aimed at reducing administrative pressure, election expenditure and governance paralysis caused by frequent polls.
But almost simultaneously, Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party accused the Centre of attempting to weaken states and concentrate power in New Delhi under the guise of electoral reform.
Defending the proposal aggressively, Gujarat Minister of State for Home Harsh Sanghvi said the state government had conveyed its “full support” to the JPC headed by P P Chaudhary and was ready to cooperate completely with the initiative.
Calling the proposal beneficial for both the nation and Gujarat, Sanghvi argued that repeated elections were placing enormous pressure on the administrative machinery as well as voters.
He pointed to Gujarat’s 2026 local self-government elections, where Municipal Corporations, Nagarpalikas, District Panchayats and Taluka Panchayats voted on a single day, claiming the exercise proved that synchronized elections allow smoother planning and better governance in a shorter period.
Sharpening the BJP’s argument further, Sanghvi said Gujarat voters have been repeatedly pulled into election cycles Assembly elections in 2022, Lok Sabha elections in 2024, local body elections in 2026 and Assembly polls again in 2027.
According to him, months of administrative preparation go into every election cycle, while a state government survey estimates nearly 50 lakh man-hours are consumed in Assembly and Lok Sabha elections alone. “The model code of conduct comes into force immediately after elections are announced, and that directly affects development work and public welfare activities,” Sanghvi argued, framing simultaneous elections as a governance reform rather than merely a political exercise.
But the BJP minister did not stop at defending the proposal. He also used the occasion to target the opposition, particularly Congress leader Rahul Gandhi.
Reacting to Rahul Gandhi’s repeated references to protecting the Constitution, Sanghvi launched a stinging attack, saying, “Rahul Gandhi carries a copy of the Constitution in his hand, but ask him about even one page and he will not know anything.”
The Congress hit back almost immediately. Gujarat Congress president Amit Chavda mounted a strong and detailed attack on the proposed legislation, accusing the central government of trying to centralize power and dilute India’s federal structure.
Calling the bill “anti-Constitution” and “anti-democratic,” Chavda argued that India’s Constitution deliberately grants separate powers and governance structures to states, and the proposed framework threatens to erode those rights.
He raised serious objections to provisions linked to handling mid-term collapses of governments, saying any arrangement that avoids fresh elections after a government loses majority would directly violate democratic principles.
“The people elect a government for five years, not for half a term,” Chavda said while invoking Dr B R Ambedkar’s observations during the Constituent Assembly debates of 1949.
The Congress leader also challenged the BJP’s cost-saving argument, claiming election expenditure accounts for less than one percent of the state budget. On the contrary, he argued, simultaneous elections would require massive deployment of security personnel, EVMs and VVPAT machines at one time, potentially increasing expenditure by thousands of crores.
Chavda further warned that if Lok Sabha, Assembly and local body elections are conducted together, national narratives would overshadow hyper-local governance issues.
According to him, concerns related to municipalities, district panchayats, taluka panchayats and civic administration would get buried beneath national political campaigns, leaving local democracy weakened and voters confused.
He also dismissed the BJP’s repeated claims regarding governance paralysis during the model code of conduct period, insisting that approved schemes and ongoing works do not stop during elections and accusing the government of spreading “misleading propaganda” to justify the proposal.
In a sharp political message, Chavda declared that Congress would continue opposing the bill at every stage, calling it “an attack on democratic and constitutional sentiments.”
Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party also registered strong opposition before the JPC and later amplified its objections through a press conference. Senior AAP leaders including Isudan Gadhvi, Gopal Italia, Hemant Khawa, Karan Barot and Anup Sharma participated in the discussions and questioned the Centre’s intentions behind the proposal.
As the JPC continues its nationwide consultations, Gujarat’s political battle has once again exposed how the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal is rapidly turning into a larger ideological confrontation one side projecting it as administrative reform and national efficiency, while the other sees it as a direct challenge to India’s federal and constitutional balance.