NEW DELHI: Days after the Centre notified a high-level committee to examine and make recommendations on holding simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies, Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Wednesday called on former president Ram Nath Kovind who heads the panel.
The ministers are believed to have discussed convening the first meeting of the panel at the earliest and preparing a roadmap for the committee, according to sources. The meeting lasted for nearly an hour, said people familiar with the development.
Sources said the leaders termed the meeting as a ‘courtesy call’ and said meetings in future could also be held in hybrid mode. The committee is expected to begin work immediately and submit its recommendations “at the earliest”.
On Sunday, senior law ministry officials had briefed Kovind and held discussions on the way forward and his views about the mandate of the committee. While the law minister is a special invitee to the eight-member committee, the law secretary has been nominated as a secretary to it.
The law ministry is also likely to nominate officers who would coordinate with the panel in the coming days. The announcement of the committee has sparked rumours of the Union government’s likely move to initiate the process of holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
The notification of the panel came close on the heels of the government announcing a special session of Parliament scheduled for September 18-22. The opposition has come out strongly against the move as they claim that synchronised elections are a threat to federalism.
The members of the panel include Amit Shah, senior advocate Harish Salve, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N K Singh, former CVC Sanjay Kothari and former leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad.
Though Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was also named as a member, he had declined to be part of the committee saying that “it’s an eyewash.”
In the past, three committees — Law Commission, NITI Aayog, and Parliamentary Standing Committee — have examined the proposals to hold simultaneous polls in the country. However, it did not yield constructive solutions as the transition involved Constitutional amendments and legislative changes.
The committees have made suggestions such as extending or curtailing assembly terms or clubbing elections to achieve the goal of holding simultaneous polls in a phased manner. The Law Commission in its 2018 report has also suggested that at least 50 per cent of the state assemblies should ratify the Constitutional amendments.
One of the terms of reference of the high-level committee is to examine if constitutional amendments would have to be ratified by the state assemblies.
The committee has been also asked to analyse and recommend possible solutions if there are scenarios like a hung house, adoption of a no-confidence motion or defection.
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