Providing details of the present structure of the Constitution, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram said on Monday that the idea of ‘One Nation, One Election’ is virtually unworkable at present. He, however, did state categorically that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does NOT have a majority in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to get through these amendments. It is said that during the current term of the government it has plans to present a bill on this matter.
Chidambaram elaborated constitutional concerns pointing out that the opposition INDIA bloc does not support this idea. He reiterated the fact that adoption of the polls in parallel posed a very huge constitution barrier.
This concept of ‘One Nation, One Election’ is one of the main points for the BJP’s election platform. In his recent speech when the celebration of Independence Day, Modi insisted on the notion that regular election is detrimental for development and urged his fellow countrymen to unite for this purpose. He argued for the reduction of the electoral cycles to 17 months so that politics do not engulf the whole five year’s term and further stressed that reducing the electoral periods to a few months will help in saving the logistical costs.
Chidambaram also came down heavily on Modi’s statement that congress wants to eliminate reservations. He pointed that Congress is okay with increasing the ceiling limit to beyond 50% and pushing for caste census for a correct understanding of the situation.
