The Telangana Congress chief also said the BJP was attempting to take away the rights of the states in the name of “One Nation One Election”.
Published Sep 03, 2023 | 10:46 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 03, 2023 | 11:44 PM
Telangana Congress chief A Revanth Reddy during his padayatra. (Congress4Telangana/Twitter)
Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president A Revanth Reddy said on Sunday, 3 September, that simultaneous elections — as proposed in the Central government’s One Nation, One Election plan — would pose a major threat to the democracy.
Armed with a letter from 2018, in which Telangana Chief Minister and BRS chief K Chandrashekar Rao showed support for the proposal, Revanth asked the BRS to make its stance clear on the matter.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan in Hyderabad, he said the INDIA coalition was completely against the simultaneous elections and that was one of the major reasons for the Congress’ Lok Sabha member Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary to refuse a role in the “One Nation One Election” panel.
Stating that a big conspiracy was being hatched in the name of “One Nation One Election”, he said the BJP was attempting to take away the rights of the states.
The proposed move was to bring about Presidential-style elections in the country, he said.
He said the surveys indicate that the Congress would form the government after Assembly elections in five states.
He added that the C Voter Survey revealed that the Congress would get 38 percent of votes while the BRS would get 31 percent in Telangana.
To avoid humiliation after defeat in the Assembly elections, the BJP and NDA alliance were coming up with this simultaneous-election proposal, he claimed.
Revanth Reddy said that KCR wrote a letter in 2018 stating that he was in favour of simultaneous elections.
Rao went to the extent of saying that the election code imposed frequently would hamper the development of states, he claimed.
In the letter addressed to Justice BS Chauhan, former Supreme Court Judge and Law Commission of India chairman, KCR said he received a dated 14 June, 2018, regarding his views on the subject of holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies.
“At the outset, I thank you very much for giving me this opportunity to express our party’s (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) views on the subject. We all know that four to six months are being spent in conducting elections each time to Lok Sabha and State Legislatures. The entire state and district level administrative and security machinery is very busy with conducting elections twice in five years as per the current practice,” Rao said in the letter.
Likewise, the imposition of a model code of conduct for such a long period was also hampering development and welfare activities being undertaken by the state government, he added.
Further, huge amounts of public money as well as of the political parties and candidates were being spent twice in a period of five years, if elections were not held simultaneously, he said.
“In the above backdrop, our party — the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) — is strongly in favour of holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and the state legislative Assemblies. As I am busy with my pre-scheduled engagements, I am deputing B Vinod Kumar, Member of Parliament (LS) on my behalf to participate in the interaction and convey views and suggestions,” he said.
Revanth Reddy sought to know the current stand of the BRS — to which it rebranded from the TRS only last year — on simultaneous elections when it claimed that it was not associated with the BJP.
“Can we assume that the BRS’ silence is nothing but extending full support to the BJP?” he asked.
He recalled that the BRS extended support to the BJP whenever a bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.
“It is high time for Chandrashekar Rao to explain to the people the stand of BRS on simultaneous elections,” Revanth Reddy said.
