President pushes for 'One Nation, One Election'

President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday gave a fresh push to the "One Nation, One Poll" idea, calling it the need of the hour to accelerate development and asked all MPs to seriously ponder over it.

"During the last few decades, due to frequent elections being held in some part of the country or the other, the pace and continuity of development programmes have been impacted."

"Our countrymen have demonstrated their wisdom by delivering a clear verdict both at State and National issues. 'One Nation - Simultaneous Elections' is the need of the hour, which would facilitate accelerated development, thereby benefitting our countrymen," he said in his customary address to a joint sitting of Parliament after the general elections.

With such a system in place, Kovind said all political parties, according to their respective ideologies, will be able to better utilise their energy towards development and public welfare.

"Therefore, I urge all Members of Parliament to seriously ponder over this development-oriented proposal of 'One Nation - Simultaneous Elections'," he said.

The President's remarks on the "One Nation, One Poll" concept comes a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi had called an all-party meeting to discuss the issue.

After the meeting, the government said that the Prime Minister would constitute a committee to go into all aspect of the issue and prepare a report in a time-bound manner.