BHUBANESWAR: Pinaki Mishra, the BJD Lok Sabha member from Puri, on Wednesday went to the Election Commission of India in New Delhi and pitched for simultaneous elections in Odisha.
In a letter addressing the ECI, Mr Mishra said, “In the event any decision is taken by the Central government to pre-pone Lok Sabha polls, before they are scheduled to be held in 2019, we would request you to make adequate preparations to hold polls to Odisha Assembly simultaneously.”
Briefing media persons after the meeting, Mr Mishra said while the Centre was planning to hold simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and 11 state Assemblies, Odisha must be included in the “one nation, one poll” proposal.
He said separate election would cost around Rs 1,000 crore to the state exchequer whereas the expenditure is shared by the Centre and the state government in case of simultaneous elections.
