Hours after the Law Ministry announced the composition of the eight-member committee set up to examine the possibility of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, the Congress not only declined to be part of it but also questioned the exclusion of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Rajya Sabha and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), party general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said the high-level committee on simultaneous elections is “nothing but a systematic attempt to sabotage India’s parliamentary democracy”.
“In a shocking insult to Parliament, the BJP has appointed a former LoP to the committee [Ghulam Nabi Azad] instead of Rajya Sabha LoP Sh. Mallikarjun @kharge ji,” Mr. Venugopal said. He called the panel a “gimmick to distract from the Adani mega scam, unemployment, price rise and other pressing issues of the people”.
“Then, to make matters worse, they try to tilt this committee’s balance by excluding fierce opponents. What is the reason behind Khargeji’s exclusion?” he asked.
Former Union Minister P. Chidambaram said the concept of ‘one nation, one election’ seems to be “a pre-determined and pre-packaged issue”.
“All major political parties are stakeholders in this issue and they have not been consulted in forming the eight-member committee,” he said on X, adding that only one Opposition leader had been included. “Besides, I am able to recognise only one acknowledged constitutional lawyer in the committee,” Mr. Chidambaram said.
