With KCR saying that he was ready to the simultaneous polls idea, the PM has won the support of the first CM outside the ruling NDA to the proposal. According to sources close to the CM, the PM had specifically asked the former whether he agrees with the idea of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, when KCR called on him at his official residence, 7 Lok Kalyan Marg, New Delhi, on Monday. The issue figured during both official and personal talks, a senior MP who was with KCR at the PM’s residence told The Sunday Guardian on the condition of anonymity.
KCR told the PM that he was ready to face them whenever it was required, whether in early 2018 or in 2019, as per the schedule. As per the assessment of the MP, the PM was exploring the option of holding simultaneous elections a little ahead of the present schedule, April/May 2019.
The NITI Aayog might come up with a detailed note on simultaneous polls for wider consultations on the issues involved with the Chief Ministers sometime later this year—issues like how to deal with the bypolls to seats that fall vacant in between and what to do with the cases when the Cabinet decides to dissolve the legislatures, etc.
The CM, who returned from Delhi Monday night, held consultations with his senior party colleagues on his discussion with the PM. Two senior ministers who met the CM, told this newspaper that KCR appeared ready to face simultaneous polls even if they are held sometime next year. “He told us to finish all welfare and development spending by early next year,” said a minister.
KCR, in lieu of his support to the PM’s proposal, is understood to have urged the PM to clear some of his demands—whether it is 12% reservations to Muslims, or increase in Assembly seats from the present 119 to 153 as promised in the AP Bifurcation Act or transferring the Army’s prime land of around 60 acres in Secunderabad to his government and clearance of the state’s land Bill.
The PM cleared a land acquisition amendment bill of Telangana within three days of their meeting in Delhi. The land bill, which amends the Central law of 2013, seeks to acquire land for irrigation projects underway in Telangana. Surprisingly, Andhra Pradesh CM Naidu, too, has announced that he would not only back simultaneous polls, but also was ready to hold them whenever it was needed. Naidu, too, held a one-on-one meeting with PM Modi in Delhi on Sunday. Naidu had an opportunity to confer with the PM as he was a member of a couple of panels of Niti Aayog, on digital payments and GST.
Naidu, too, briefed his ministers back home at Amaravati on Monday and told them, “Which government at the Centre can work, if polls are held every six months in one or the other state?” However, Naidu’s son and IT Minister Lokesh told another meeting of TDP that “No state government would prefer to hold Assembly election one year before the expiry of its term, but we have to be ready to face them. We are not asking for early polls, but simultaneous polls are different,” said Lokesh.
Both Naidu and Lokesh dismissed reports that simultaneous polls would help the dominance of national parties as national issues take precedence over state level issues. “It is not a question of whether a national party benefits or a regional party. People will favour the party that performs and keeps its promises,” said Naidu.