President pitches for simultaneous polls in address

New Delhi: With both President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday calling for a debate on holding simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies, speculations gained momentum that the NDA government could be planning to advance the Lok Sabha elections and hold it along with the Assembly elections late this year.

In his maiden address to the joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament at the beginning of the Budget Session, Mr Kovind called for a “sustained debate” on holding simultaneous polls, saying all parties need to arrive at a consensus over the issue.

Later Mr Modi, while addressing the meeting of NDA leaders, asked them to works towards creating an environment in favour of holding simultaneous polls. Mr Modi, who has been strongly pitching for simultaneous polls, had recently said that like festivals, elections should be held on fixed dates so that governments can function for five years and also relentless electoral cycle harms the federal structure. He had also said that barbs exchanged during campaigning in one state have a bearing in other parts of the country which are not going to polls.

Addressing the issue in his speech to the joint sitting of the two Houses, Mr Kovind said that citizens alive to the state of governance in the country were concerned about frequent elections in one part of the country or another, which adversely impacted the economy and development.

“Frequent elections not only impose a huge burden on human resources, but also impede the development process due to the promulgation of the model code of conduct,” he said.

The President said a “sustained debate” was required on the subject of simultaneous elections and “all political parties need to arrive at a consensus on this issue.”

However, newly-appointed Chief Election Commissioner O.P. Rawat had recently thrown a word of caution over the issue, saying the legal framework required to hold the two elections together will take a “lot of time” to get ready.

Mr Rawat had also said he would be the wrong person to respond to whether simultaneous polls could be held in 2019.