CEC Rawat rules out ‘one nation, one poll’ for now

NEW DELHI: Simultaneous elections are not possible without a legal framework as an extension or curtailment of the term of assemblies will require a constitutional amendment, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat said on Tuesday, a day after the BJP made a fresh push to hold Lok Sabha and assembly polls together.

Pointing at the need for a legal framework, he virtually ruled out holding simultaneous polls any time soon.

“If the term of some state assemblies needs to be curtailed or extended, then a constitutional amendment will be required... Logistics arrangements about 100 per cent availability of VVPATS (paper trail machines) will be a constraint,” he told reporters to a question on whether simultaneous elections can be held anytime soon.

“On the issue of ‘one nation one poll’, the Election Commission had given inputs and suggestions in 2015 itself... Other requirements of additional police force, polling personnel would also be needed,” he said.

The CEC said the poll panel would continue to deliver its responsibility of conducting elections whenever term of the state assemblies come to an end.

The EC is in the process of procuring new EVMS and VVPATS ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

While all required EVMS - 13.95 lakh ballot units and 9.3 lakh control units -- will be delivered by September 30, 16.15 lakh VVPATS will also be given well before the end of November, Rawat had earlier said.

Some additional VVPATS are being procured as a cushion in case these machines malfunction and need to be replaced during polls.

Over 11 per cent of the 10,300 VVPAT machines across ten states had developed faults and had to be replaced during the May 28 bypolls.

If simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies are held in 2019, the EC will require nearly 24 lakh EVMS, double the number needed to hold only the Parliamentary polls.

Amid talks of simultaneous polls, the Congress on Tuesday dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to dissolve the Lok Sabha early and announce general elections along with polls in four states where the terms of the assemblies end this year.

Congress general secretary Ashok Gehlot said postponing the upcoming state assembly elections and conducting these with Lok Sabha polls in 2019

is “not possible” under the Constitution or the law.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday said that ‘one nation, one poll’ was a good idea but not implementable in the forthcoming general elections. The BJP’S bickering ally Shiv Sena used the debate to take potshots at its more prominent partner, saying it “may even propose to hold the elections simultaneously with those in the US and Russia.”

On Monday, BJP chief Amit Shah wrote to the Law Commission expressing support for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “One nation one election” idea.