Aurangabad, August 23: The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) OP Rawat has given a set back to Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) ‘One Nation One Poll’ theory on Thursday. The party is pitching for conducting simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha elections and the state assemblies. Rawat said that legal framework should be in place to hold the assembly and Lok Sabha elections at the same time. The chief election commissioner while talking to media In Aurangabad said that there is no chance to conduct elections simultaneously.
However, BJP is in favour of conducting simultaneous polls. There are speculations that the government is considering to postpone assembly elections in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram which are due at the end of this year to hold them simultaneously with Lok Sabha Elections next year. Even BJP president Amit Shah wrote a letter to the Election Commission in which he said that the party was interested in putting a comprehensive structure so that successful implementation of 'One Nation, One Election' can be successfully implemented.
The Opposition and even some allies of the BJP objected to the concept and criticised the BJP for proposing it. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had earlier said that it was a good idea but could not be implementable in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Earlier this month, Rawat had also rejected the idea by saying that body doesn't have the required number of VVPAT machine to hold simultaneous polls in several states along with general elections.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Aug 23, 2018 11:12 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).