Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday advocated for a "one nation, one election" system, saying administrative reform is needed to ensure that the country's pace of development is not disrupted.
"When elections happen at different times in different places, half of the time the development works are disrupted because of the Model Code of Conduct. The new generation of the country should get the development of the country at a faster speed. So administrative reforms are needed," Pradhan said at a summit hosted by the TV9 Network.
"Earlier, there was a tradition of one nation, one election … in the first election in the 1950s, there used to be one general and assembly election … slowly, due to a lack of majority, coalition governments, there were disruptions and the trend changed," he said. Asked whether the country will head towards a one nation, one election system if the BJP forms the government at the Centre for a third time, Pradhan said, "Definitely."
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The senior BJP leader said there were doubts raised by people earlier on the possibility of reforms such as "one nation, one tax" and "one nation, one identity".
"Earlier, people used to say one nation, one tax is not possible, one nation, one identity is not possible … today, there is Aadhaar and GST. Earlier, people use to say the Budget should be in March or February-end only. Today, it is in early February. Systems change if we work for them,” the education minister said.
Last September, the government notified a panel under former president Ram Nath Kovind to examine and make recommendations at the earliest on the issue of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats. The high-level committee held its fifth meeting earlier this month.
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The panel has been holding interactions with leaders from various parties. It had earlier sought the views of political parties on the proposal. Most opposition parties have opposed the idea of simultaneous polls.
