The Kerala assembly on Thursday passed a resolution urging the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government at the Centre to revoke its decision to accept a high-level committee’s recommendation on implementing simultaneous national, state and local polls across India, saying this proposal was undemocratic.
In the resolution, the House urged the Central government to roll back its decision to approve the proposal for ‘one nation, one election’ recommended by the Ramnath Kovind panel. The resolution asserted that the proposal was “undemocratic and unconstitutional”.
The resolution, moved by the state’s parliamentary affairs minister MB Rajesh on behalf of chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, said the ‘one nation, one election’ proposal approved by the Centre would weaken the federal system in the country. The BJP does not have a legislator in the state assembly.
Kerala is the first state assembly to pass a resolution against the proposed move.
MB Rajesh, who tabled the proposed resolution in the assembly, said, “The proposal is undemocratic. We see it as a concerted attempt to damage the country’s social, cultural and political diversities. When there are simpler ways to reduce expenses and ensure smoother governance, the proposal is aimed at destroying the federal structure which is at the core of the Constitution, challenging the rights of the people and hampering the rights of state assemblies and local self-governments”.
Rajesh further said that this decision amounted to a violation of the people’s mandate, a challenge to their democratic rights and usurping of a state’s power to hold elections and taking over of the federal system of the country. He contended that the committee was viewing Lok Sabha, state assembly and local body polls as an expense and doing so was “undemocratic”.
He said it was a “condemnable move” as there were other simpler ways to reduce election costs and make governance effective. “This move is unconstitutional and against constitutional values as well as an attempt to implement the RSS and BJP agenda,” Rajesh claimed.
The minister also accepted certain amendments suggested by UDF MLAs in the resolution and subsequently, the resolution was passed unanimously by the House. The proposal to align elections was a part of the BJP’s 2024 poll manifesto but is fiercely opposed by a raft of political parties and activists who allege that it would hurt democratic accountability.
On September 18, the Union cabinet accepted the recommendations of the committee chaired by former president Ram Nath Kovind and announced that an implementation group would be formed to execute the recommendations.