Chennai: The high level panel seeking public opinion on the implementation of ‘One Nation, One Election’ concept should stop its work without taking the side of the power hungry BJP government as the idea agitated against the Constitution and federalism, derived from the tenets of the Constitution, the DMK said.
Pointing out that the panel was not empowered to seek such a public opinion, the DMK’s letter to the panel said it opposed the idea of a ‘one nation, one election’ notion and had already written two letters, dated October 18, 2023, and November 23, 2023, expressing it views on the issue.
Setting up the panel itself was against the Constitution and it had no powers to decide on such issues like holding elections to the local bodies was not acceptable and introducing such a system would pave the way for a Presidential form of government.
The DMK was of the firm view that holding simultaneous polls for Parliament and the State Assemblies was not possible because it went against the principles of free and fair elections and due to a plethora of realities in a real democracy in which the Lok Sabha and State Assembly could be dismissed mid-term for various reasons.
So the ‘one nation, one election’ concept not only went against the basic democratic principles and also federalism, it would not engender a level playing field between national and regional parties in elections and if polls to local bodies were held along with Assembly and Lok Sabha elections it would have detrimental effects on the illiterate and rural population.
Also, simultaneous elections would require the scaling up of the Election Commission of India’s infrastructure at least 10 times and the increase of manpower to three to five times, entailing a higher expense on the exchequer, it said and added that the procurement of Electronic Voting Machines would have to be raised.
Imposing the ‘one nation, one election’ concept would amount to depriving the States of their rights as local body polls were now under the total purview of the States, it said.
