All-party meeting over 'One Nation, One Election' begins at Parliament

The meeting of the heads of political parties under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the concept of 'One Nation, One Election' among other things including NITI Aayog's proposal for developing 'Aspirational districts' is undergoing at Parliament today.

JDU's Nitish Kumar, NC's Farooq Abdullah, SAD's Sukhbir Singh Badal, BJD's Naveen Patnaik, PDP's Mehbooba Mufti, and YSRCP's Jagan Mohan Reddy are among those who are attending the meeting.

The Congress-led UPA and the Trinamool Congress have opposed the concept. Newly appointed leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Ahir Ranjan Choudhary told reporters after a meeting of the UPA chaired by Sonia Gandhi here on Tuesday that the parties were opposed to the idea in principle.

Since some issues are to be sorted out, the UPA will meet again on Wednesday morning to discuss the issue further and take a common stand at the meeting called by Modi in the evening, said Chaudhary.DMK, the second largest party in the UPA, and other Congress allies like NCP, IUML attended the meeting.

Prominent leaders who attended the meeting included UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, K Suresh, all from the Congress party, TR Baalu, Kanimozhi of DMK, Supriya Sule of NCP, Farooq Abdullah of NC, Thirumaavalan Thol (VCK), NK Premachandran ( RSP), PK Kunhalikutty (IUML), and Thomas Chazhikadan of KC-M.

Banerjee has written to the government saying that she would not be able to attend the meeting called to discuss the issue of 'One Nation, One Election' idea.

In her letter to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, she said: "Response on such a sensitive and serious subject like 'One Country and One Election' in such a short time would not do justice to the subject it deserves."

She said that the matter required consultations with the Constitutional experts, election experts, and all the party members.

"Instead of doing the matter hurriedly, I would like to request you to kindly circulate a white paper on the subject to all political parties inviting their views by providing adequate time."

"If you only do so, we will be able to give concrete suggestions on this important subject," the letter further read.

Moreover, talking about the Aspirational Districts Programme, Banerjee said: "We have recently conveyed our views to NITI Aayog during its meeting, stating that we are not in support of selection of a few districts as Aspirational Districts as it would not conform to the overall objectives of achieving balanced and uniform development of all the districts of the State."

The letter also said that the party will "whole-heartedly participate in the most befitting manner" in the celebration of 75 years of India's Independence and 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.