New Delhi, Sep 4: Days after declining to be part of the government’s eight member panel on one nation one election, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Monday said that he received a call from one of the ‘babu’ (officer) from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to be part of the panel and not by any ministers.
Talking to media persons, Chodhury said, “On August 31 at 11 p.m. my office secretary received a call from the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Mishra. He knows me as I go to PMO for the CBI Director meeting and other issues. I asked him is everything fine as he called me late in the night?”
“He told me that the government is going to make a committee and they want to include me in the committee. The committee would be headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind. And you will be included in the Committee and we want to know your views,” he said.
“I told them I got happy that I have received a call as many times we are unable to speak to him. I asked them to send all papers related to the panel and after seeing the papers, I will inform them about my decision,” he said.
“Without documents what I will share and speak,” he rued.
“I was asked by a babu (officer), not any minister. A ‘babu’ was sent to speak to me over the phone late at night,” he said.
The Centre announced its eight-member committee to explore the option which aims to explore the move to hold simultaneous elections for local bodies, states, and the Centre.
The government had formed an eight-member committee to examine one nation one election with former President Kovind as its chairman and Home Minister Amit Shah and others as its member.
It said that Kovind has been appointed as chairman of the committee while Shah, Chowdhury, former Rajya Sabha LoP Ghulam Nabi Azad, and others have been appointed as the members of the committee.
Former chairman of the 15th Finance Commission N.K Singh, former Secy General of Lok Sabha Subhash Kashyap Senior advocate Harish Salve and former Chief vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari are the other names part of the eight member panel.
IANS