NEW DELHI, Dec 17: The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) leaders including Union ministers asserted on Tuesday that the bills on holding simultaneous polls have been brought to ensure “political stability” in the country and not to take away any of the rights of the state legislatures or the governments.
Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal moved in the Lok Sabha two bills which lay down the mechanism to hold simultaneous polls in the country, with the opposition dubbing the draft laws as an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution and the federal structure of the country.
Senior BJP leader and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad called moving of the two bills a “historic day” and said the issue of holding simultaneous polls in the country had been pending for over two decades despite the Election Commission, Law Commission and political thinkers recommending it several times.
“It came time and again that elections should be held once (in five years) for political stability in the country,” Prasad told reporters in Parliament complex.
“At present, the country is always revolving around the cycle of elections,” he added.
The BJP leader rejected as “baseless and illogical” the opposition charge that the bills on the simultaneous polls is an attack on the federal structure of the country.
“This is not in the least violation of federal principle,” he said, asking, “What do they mean? State assembly polls will not be held? Their governments will not be formed?” There is no logic in their argument, he added.
On the Congress saying that the voting on the bills at the introduction stage in the Lok Sabha showed the ruling BJP lacks the two-thirds majority required to pass a constitutional amendment, Prasad said, “What can I do if someone doesn’t understand the Constitution.” “A two-thirds majority will be required at the time of the passage of the bills (in Parliament)… We do have (the adequate numbers). We will show by doing it. A lot of things (bills) have been passed,” he said. (PTI)
