Unconstitutional, undemocratic: AAP to ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal

New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party on Monday opposed the proposal of ‘One Nation, One Election’, calling it unconstitutional and against the principles of democracy.

The party also termed the proposal a front to legitimise BJP’s ‘Operation Lotus’ and legalise the sale and purchase of MLAs.

“Under One Nation, One Election if no party gets a majority, then MLAs-MPs can elect Chief Minister-Prime Minister through a direct presidential style vote. Direct voting will take place in absence of anti-defection law so the MLA or MP of any party can vote for the CM or PM of another party and it will fulfil BJP’s dreams of running Operation Lotus throughout the country at once,” AAP’s Delhi MLA Atishi said.

“Central and state issues are different and people vote for different parties, if both the elections are held together then it will be difficult for the people to take a decision. Due to the simultaneous elections of Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, the resource and cash rich parties will suppress the issues of the states with the help of their money and muscle and the voter’s decision will be affected,” she said.

Atishi contended that governments can run for many years even after losing the vote of confidence after One Nation One Election is implemented, because elections can be held only after five years. “Conducting separate elections is being called a waste of money and how can the democracy of our country be put in danger to save only Rs 1,000 crore annually?” she asked.

“Constitutional amendments proposed to achieve simultaneous central and state elections under the One Nation One Election plan are an attack on the basic structure of the Constitution.”

Addressing the issue of ‘constructive vote of no confidence’ in the proposal, AAP leader Jasmine Shah said that the fundamental idea of democracy is that the power must be in the hands of the people so that in case, they lose confidence in the previously elected government, they can make the government fall by withdrawing their support through their representatives ie. the MPs or MLAs.

“So the idea of ‘Constructive Vote of No Confidence’, which has been mentioned in the ONOE proposal is gravely concerning. It is very worrying that since the BJP came to power at the Centre, the blatant buying and selling of MLAs has already been almost legitimised through their Operation Lotus,” said Shah.

“Now with the ONOE proposal, they are aiming to legally allow and encourage this through the constitutional stamp of approval. They want to write down that the PM and the CM will be elected through the formula of the Speaker of the House and any member could vote for any party. We are all aware of which political party is the wealthiest in our country,” said Shah.

“If we see the figures revealed by the Election Commission of India in the last two years, the BJP alone has collected three-quarters of the money collected through electoral bonds by all political parties put together. We are aware that several agencies like the ED and CBI are used against the MPs and MLAs,” said Shah.

“Many MLAs and MPs support the BJP due to the fear of such practices by the BJP. If the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal is brought into existence with its current formula, it is clearly evident which political party it benefits. These are a few of the rationale we have explained in the AAP’s 12-page detailed report submitted to the Law Commission. We have shared our report with the media as well and we encourage people to read it,” Shah added.