Simultaneous polls: Crucial BJP meeting
The Bharatiya Janata Party has convened a meeting of all its chief ministers here on February 28 to discuss Prime Minister Modi's wish to hold the simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls once in five years to put an end to the repeated brakes on the development momentum due to the frequent elections warranting imposition of model code of conduct by the Election Commission.
In a letter to the BJP chief ministers, the party's national general secretary Bhupender Yadav expressed the party's desire to arrive at a consensus on the idea of "one nation, one election" and also try to bring the opposition leaders in their respective states on the issue.
The meeting convened on Wednesday to discuss issues which will be addressed by Prime Minister Modi and BJP President Amit Shah as it will also review the public welfare schemes as the party gears up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
The BJP's push for simultaneous polls has led to speculation that the government may advance Lok Sabha polls to hold them with the Assembly poll of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram in November-December this year.
The meeting will explore if BJP CMs go for dissolution of the Assemblies that have one or two more years of life to bring their states also under simultaneous polls, BJP sources said.
Except for the President and Prime Minister talking of simultaneous polls, nothing has been said on record by the government, though opposition parties are already on alert on Modi holding an early Lok Sabha poll. Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Ghulam Nabi Azad even went to the extent of stressing in a party meeting to let the workers prepare for Lok Sabha polls by November-end.
The only move to explore the prospect of simultaneous elections at the official level came from Bhupender Yadav as the chairman of a parliamentary standing committee. He told members that they should firm up views on the issue and submit the report to Parliament in the monsoon session in July.
The committee, comprising 10 Rajya Sabha and 20 Lok Sabha members, has already held preliminary discussions on the issue. Sources said the Left and regional parties opposed simultaneous polls in the committee meeting as they felt it would undermine the regional and local issues as the national issues will dominate in such an eventuality.