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Simultaneous elections in all State assemblies and Lok Sabha may not be possible immediately, but the BJP-ruled Centre is keen to club at least 13 State Assembly and Lok Sabha polls together.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told BusinessLine that besides Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh in November, where elections are due this year, there are States such as Haryana, Maharashtra, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand and Sikkim where it is possible to hold elections along with the Lok Sabha polls.
Asserting that simultaneous elections are an “idea whose time has come”, the Law Minister said, “With a little political pragmatism, a large number of Assemblies can be clubbed together. If you examine it carefully, there are three State Assembly elections in November. Then you have the Lok Sabha elections in May, and afterwards you have Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Maharashtra et al. Altogether, we have several State Assembly polls in close vicinity with the Lok Sabha polls. Subject to a political consensus, a forward movement can take place.”
On Triple Talaq
Pointing to the political themes that the BJP would take up in the election year, the Law Minister alluded to the narrative around Congress’ purported claims to being a “Muslim party”, the discourse around the Triple Talaq Bill and the nikah halala — which Prasad characterised as “important legislative business” in the monsoon session of Parliament beginning tomorrow — along with the campaign for simultaneous elections and the “corruption” of the Opposition.
“First and foremost, we would like the triple talaq (Bill) to be passed in this session. I am appealing to three women leaders in the country – Soniaji (Sonia Gandhi), Mayawatiji (BSP President Mayawati) and Mamataji (TMC Chief Mamata Banerjee) – and I am saying, ‘will you stand with us on gender equality?’” he asked.
And if Congress President Rahul Gandhi resorts to “rabid appeasement”, the BJP will give a befitting response, he added.
“While there are innumerable instances of Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas and inclusive development, ideologically we are proud of our heritage and sanskar from where flows Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas. But if there is rabid appeasement of the kind we have seen where when you (Rahul Gandhi) go to Gujarat for campaigning, you become janeu-dhari , in Karnataka, you become super janeu-dhari but when you come to Delhi you again start appeasement and say Congress is a Muslim party, there will be a political response,” said the Law Minister.
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