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No southern leader appointed in ‘one poll’ panel, says BRS
Senior BRS leader and state finance minister T Harish Rao alleged that the Centre had always discriminated against the southern states in taking key decisions
The ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana on Monday accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre of not taking the southern states into consideration in the ongoing exercise on one-nation-one-poll proposal.
Senior BRS leader and state finance minister T Harish Rao alleged that the Centre had always discriminated against the southern states in taking key decisions. “There is not a single leader from South India in the eight-member committee constituted by the Centre under the leadership of former President of India Ram Nath Kovind,” he said while speaking to reporters at Palakurthy in Jangaon district on Monday.
Stating that the BJP national leadership doesn’t want to take the southern states into confidence in such crucial matters, Rao said it (BJP) had sought to enact a big drama in the name of simultaneous polls all over the country, as it had failed to mark its presence in the South India.
“Forget coming to power, the BJP cannot win even a single digit in the upcoming Telangana elections. Whether the Centre holds simultaneous elections or does jumbling, the BRS is certain to come to power in Telangana for a third successive term,” the minister said.
Another senior BRS leader and former MP B Vinod Kumar also found fault with the Centre for taking out the proposal of the simultaneous polls without giving scope for any scientific discussions.
“Maybe, Prime Minister Narendra Modi thought he would spring yet another surprise on the people, just like he had done in the case of demonetisation. The decision caught even his own partymen by surprise,” Kumar said.
The leader also criticised the Centre for not giving representation to any of the southern states in the committee constituted to look into the possibility of conducting simultaneous elections across the country.
He said the NDA government was creating uncertainty in the country by hastily pushing through its agenda. “In 2018, the BRS had conveyed its support for the one-nation-one-poll proposal through a letter to the Law Commission of India. But we insisted that there should be a thorough discussion. But after failing to hold any such discussions all these years, the Centre is now hastily reviving the proposal,” he said.
He said the formation of the committee might be a mere formality, and a report on simultaneous elections might have already been prepared without consulting the stakeholders. “There is no surprise if the Centre gets the bill on simultaneous polls passed in Parliament, because its has majority and ratified by the states, as more than 50% of the states are ruled by the BJP,” he said.
The erstwhile combined state of Andhra Pradesh had witnessed the conduct of the assembly elections coterminus with the general elections to Lok Sabha since 1999. After the bifurcation of the state in 2014, too, there were simultaneous elections to the Telugu states along with the Lok Sabha.
But with the BRS (then Telangana Rashtra Samithi) government headed by chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, dissolving the assembly in September 2018, the Telangana state went for early polls to its assembly in December 2018, nearly five months ahead of the schedule.
Now, Telangana is scheduled to go for assembly elections in December 2023 again. “But if the Centre really pushes through the one-nation-one-poll proposal, the Election Commission might either postpone the Telangana elections by a few months or advance the general elections by a few months,” Vinod Kumar added.
Telangana BJP official spokesperson N V Subhash said the one-nation-one-poll had been there on the BJP election manifesto for the last five years and the exercise of seeking the opinion of various parties began way back in 2017. “Now, all the parties have the opportunity to discuss and debate the issue in the five-day special session of the Parliament,” he said.
On the lack of representation to South India in the committee, Subhash said, “For that matter, even the northeast doesn’t have representation in the committee. That doesn’t mean the Centre neglected it. One should not look at it from a regional angle.”
