By – Shubhendra Singh Rajawat
A trial program of concurrent elections in Uttar Pradesh is suggested by Akhilesh Yadav to evaluate the Election Commission’s capabilities and gauge public opinion.
Akhilesh Yadav, the head of the Samajwadi Party, proposed a pilot program in Uttar Pradesh on Saturday, one day after the Union government established a committee to examine the viability of “one nation, one election.” The simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in India’s most populous state, according to the former chief minister, would not only test the Election Commission of India’s (ECI) abilities, but would also provide the BJP a sense of “how eager the people are to remove them from power.”
The government established a team on Friday to examine the viability of “one nation, one election,” opening the door to the possibility of moving forward the Lok Sabha elections to coincide with a series of state assembly elections. The panel is led by former president Ram Nath Kovind. The unexpected government action became the most recent cause of contention between the BJP, which is in power, and INDIA, which blasted the move as a “threat” to the nation’s federal system.
The INDIA bloc’s Akhilesh Yadav stated, “An experiment is done before every big project, (and) on the basis of this we are suggesting that the BJP government should try conducting Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections simultaneously in Uttar Pradesh before implementing “One Nation-One Election.”
In a Hindi social media post, he stated, “On the one side, it will demonstrate the Election Commission’s competence as well as the public opinion, and the BJP will also learn how the people are upset against the BJP and how keen they are to remove it from office.
Since taking office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a vocal supporter of simultaneous elections, noting the financial load and disruption to development efforts during the election season imposed by the nearly perpetual election cycle.
However, opposition leaders referred to it as a BJP distraction strategy.
Without specifically mentioning the committee’s creation, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said on X, “The citizens of India shall not betrayed anymore, no matter how many diversions and distractions the governing regime throws at the people.