P Chidambaram Criticizes BJP’s ‘One Nation, One Election’ as Pre-Packaged Move

DAINIK NATION BUREAU : Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram criticized the BJP’s ‘One Nation, One Election’ initiative on Saturday, alleging that, like many other issues associated with the BJP, it appears to be pre-planned and packaged in advance. His remarks followed the government’s announcement of an eight-member high-level committee tasked with promptly examining and providing recommendations regarding the feasibility of conducting simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities, and panchayats.

The committee will be chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind and will comprise Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former leader of the opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, and former finance commission chairman NK Singh as its members.

Taking to X (previously known as Twitter) Chidambaram expressed his views, stating, “The matter of One Nation, One Election is a question that straddles the realms of politics and legality. In reality, its political dimensions outweigh the legal aspects. Whether it is appropriate to consider this question at this juncture is a subject of intense debate,” remarked the former Union minister.

He further added, “All major political parties hold stakes in this matter, and regrettably, they were not consulted during the formation of the eight-member committee. The committee’s composition includes only one member from a major opposition political party.”

Additionally, Mr. Chidambaram raised a pertinent point by saying, “Furthermore, I can identify just one recognized constitutional lawyer among the committee members.”