Centre Ends Early Election Speculation, Vows Full Term for Modi Goverment

New Delhi: Dismissing ongoing speculation on the general elections being advanced or delayed in view of the Centre taking up the ‘one nation, one election ONOE)’ proposal as "media conjecture", Union minister Anurag Thakur on Sunday asserted that the government had no plans to call early elections. He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi would like to serve India’s citizens till the last day of his term.

The minister said the government has big plans for the special session of Parliament, commencing on September 18, but did not disclose the agenda. In an interview with a news channel, Thakur said that the government had no plan to tweak the schedule of the Assembly elections in five states.

The Union minister also said that the government had set up a committee on the ONOE proposal, which will hold deliberations with various stakeholders before reaching a decision on the issue.

Triggering a political buzz, the government earlier this week called a five-day special session of Parliament, leading to various speculations, including that the government could go in for an early election and that the special session could see a discussion on "One Nation, One Election" principle. The Opposition leaders, including Bihar chief minister and JDU leader Nitish Kumar, had been claiming for some time that the Modi government could go in for early general elections.

The Centre on Saturday had notified the eight-member committee to examine and make recommendations on the issue of holding simultaneous elections. The committee will be headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind. Other members include Union home minister Amit Shah, senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ghulam Nabi Azad, N.K. Singh, constitutional expert Subhash C. Kashyap, Harish Salve and Sanjay Kothari. Mr Chowdhury has opted out of the panel.