Simultaneous polls against principles of Constitution&fed'lism

AIMIM president Asaduddin Owaisi today opposed the proposal of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies in states, saying that the idea is against principles of the Constitution and federalism.

Owaisi, a Lok Sabha member from Hyderabad, has sent a reply to the Law Commission which had written to him as part of its consultations on the issue.

He attached a 'Response Note' to his reply.

"It must be noted that the Commission has chosen to explore how to move ahead on holding simulataneous elections without making any attempts at independently assessing if there was a need to hold state and Union elections simultaneoulsly," he said.

The reports of Niti Aayog and the Parlimentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances focus on cost to the exchequer for conducting elections and the "alleged policy paralysis" as a result of the Model Code of Conduct as the key reasons for conducting elections simultaneously, he said.

"However, neither of the reports have attempted to explore any other solutions to these problems, apart from simultaneous elections. In the absence of any substantive analysis of these problems, it is rather difficult to engage with the findings of these reports," he said.

The Constitutional protections and systems cannot be sacrificed at the altar of "efficiency", "stability" and "cost-effectiveness", he said.

"The guaranteed tenure of an elected house of legislature (Lok Sabha or Vidana Sabha) cannot be amended away in favour of stability," he said.

The Model Code of Conduct does not prevent any policy making that is developmental or routine in nature, he said.

The states are not mere "appendages" of the Centre, but are "Constitutional potentates with the same paraphernalia as the Union"..., which he said, means that the states have a right to have their representative.

"This right cannot be reduced to a mere logistical exercise and clubbed with the "more important" Lok Sabha elections," he said.