Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday suggested that the Bharatiya Janata Party government should experiment this time by holding assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh at the same time as national parliamentary elections, before proceeding with the implementation of "One nation, one election" across the country.
The Centre has set up a Committee, chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, to investigate the possibility of holding parliamentary and state elections at the same time.
Akhilesh Yadav in a post in Hindi on 'X' wrote, "An experiment is done before doing any big work… we are suggesting that before implementing 'One Nation, One Election', the BJP government should hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and the Vidhan Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, which has the highest number of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha seats, this time."
Advertisement
The last assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh were held in 2022 and the next elections are scheduled in 2027.
Yadav further claimed the public was unhappy with the BJP and would ensure its defeat. He said, "This will reveal the Election Commission's capability and the public opinion, and the BJP will also get to know how eager the people are to remove it from power."
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also supported the 'One Nation, One Election' model.
Uttar Pradesh has 80 Lok Sabha and 403 assembly seats. In the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP won 62 seats while the SP could only win five. In the assembly election held last year, the BJP won 255 seats while the SP secured victory on 111 seats.
