Senior leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) and vice-chairman of Telangana State Planning Board B. Vinod Kumar has reiterated that his party had already made its stand clear on the proposal of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha, State Assemblies and Rural and Urban Local Bodies that a wide debate is needed on the issue.
“We have told the Law Commission in 2018 itself that although the proposal of simultaneous elections was good, a wide debate is required with all stakeholders before proceeding further on the issue,” Mr. Vinod Kumar said in a statement issued here on Sunday. Before simultaneous elections, what was important was increase (reorganisation) in the number of Assembly seats both in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as proposed in the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014.
Expressing surprise on forming a committee led by former President Ramnath Kovind on the issue of simultaneous elections, the BRS leader said all eight members of the committee were from north India and there was no representation form south India. He wondered whether a report on the issue was already prepared by the Centre and the committee was formed only to formalise such a report.
By convening the five-day Parliament session later this month, the Centre or the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leadership had forced the country into confusion as the NDA government appeared to be trying to hasten up the issue after keeping quiet for over nine years. Except Prime Minister Narendra Modi, nobody even in BJP could have any idea about what was happening, he noted.
Stating that BRS would discuss the issue of simultaneous elections proposal ahead of Parliament session, Mr.Vinod Kumar sought to know why the Centre had not exhibited such an urgency in case of Women’s Reservation Bill and Reorganisation of Assembly Constituencies in AP and Telangana.
