Panel chief Kovind backs 'one nation, one election'

India should hold simultaneous parliamentary and state assembly polls, former President and the chairman of a high level committee examining the possibility of holding "one nation, one election", Ram Nath Kovind, said on Monday, urging all political parties to support the idea in national interest.

- Saptarshi Das

"If one nation, one poll is implemented, the party which is in power at the Centre will be benefited, be it the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party), Congress, or any other political party, and there is no discrimination in that," Kovind said at a media briefing at Uttar Pradesh's Rae Bareli. "The public will be most benefited from it, and the amount of revenue generated by saving money from simultaneous elections could be used for the development of the country." 

Several committees, including a parliamentary panel, the Niti Aayog and the Election Commission of India, have submitted their reports backing simultaneous polls, the former President said.

From the first elections in Independent India in 1952 until 1967, elections were held simultaneously across the country. But since the Lok Sabha and state assemblies can be dissolved before their tenures end, the state and national elections came to be held at different times after that.