Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said it is "unfortunate" that any developmental work is invariably linked to polls and strongly pitched for three-tier simultaneous polls for parliament, state assemblies and local bodies.
"Samay ki maang hae ki hum dono ko alag rakhey (It is high time we keep elections and developmental works as separate entities)," Modi said in an interview to CNN News18.
The Prime Minister suggested that electoral politics should come into play only when polls are announced.
"It is the need of the hour that all works and developmental initiatives are not linked to elections," the Prime Minister said.
He said it is "unfortunate" that all and any developmental work initiatives of the government are linked to polls.
This, he said, was being mainly done by "super political pundits" who show more enthusiasm in these than any proper politician would.
"It is unfortunate that elections remain a continuous affair in the country, so all decisions are taken or supposed to be taken in terms of elections," he said.
It is in this context that he has received number of suggestions for simultaneous polls for parliament, state assemblies and local bodies.
"But no such drastic decision can be taken unilaterally," he said adding that "a government also cannot just do its own thing".
"Yeh vyapak charcha ka samay aa chuka hae (Now it is high time that a detailed discussion is held on these issues)," Modi said and maintained that a final decision can be taken only by all political parties under the leadership of the Election Commission.
BJP has officially favoured holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies and has recently written to the Standing Committee of Parliament in this regard.
BJP President Amit Shah recently wrote to the Standing Committee of Parliament on Law and Justice for holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections.
--IANS
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