Do not agree with concept of 'One Nation, One Election: Mamata Banerjee to Kovind-led panel

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday wrote to the high-level committee on ”One Nation, One Election” expressing her disagreement with the concept of simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and assemblies, and said it would be against the basic structure of India’s constitutional arrangements.

In a letter to the panel secretary, Banerjee said that in 1952, the first general elections were simultaneously conducted for the central and state levels.

”There was such simultaneity for some years. But the coevality has since been ruptured…,” she said.

”I regret that I cannot agree with the concept of ‘One Nation, One Election’, as framed by you. We disagree with your formulation and proposal,” she wrote.

”Non-simultaneous federal and state elections are a basic feature in the Westminster system which should not be altered. To paraphrase, non-simultaneity is part of the basic structure of the Indian Constitutional arrangements,” the West Bengal chief minister said.

The high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind had written to political parties seeking their opinion on the matter.