Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath expressed his support in favour of the country holding simultaneous elections. Simultaneous elections here connotes that the general elections and state assembly elections taking place at the same time. The reason behind his support is believed to be the expected non-delayed developmental project deliverance.
Adityanath stated that state polls, by-polls, and general elections are usually held at different times, which hampers the developmental projects due to the imposition of the moral code of conducts and the huge logistical burden that befalls with the deployment of election staff, security personnel. He said that he is in line with the Prime minister’s campaign for simultaneous elections. Adityanath is also unwilling to waste public funds on elections every five years.
Yogi Adityanath revealed that the Uttar Pradesh government has already constituted a team under the health minister Siddarth Nath Singh in this regard. He also plans to create a single voter’s list which is to be linked to the Aadhar card. So, when one turns eighteen he or she is automatically added to the list and deceased voters will automatically be deleted from the voter list. This way voter impersonification will also be curbed. The state has already sent a proposal to the Centre in this regard, the Chief Minister added.
Earlier, we have reported on how this idea can be actualized with a few altercations in 2019 when the law commission and the Election commission declared that they would meet to discuss the issue on 16th May.
Bhupendra Yadav has written to the Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states on this specific issue of simultaneous elections or as Prime Minister Modi calls it ‘One Nation-One Election’. Yadav has advised the C.M’s to take the opposition leaders into confidence to reach a consensus regarding this issue, which could very well change Indian Polity.
The NITI Aayog has also presented their recommendations in this regard, The central government has sought the opinion of the Election Commission for the same.