Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury declines to be part of ‘one nation, one election’ committee

The eight-member panel is an eyewash as its ‘terms of reference have been prepared in a manner to guarantee its conclusions’, the Leader of the Opposition said.

Sep 3, 2023 - 09:30

Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury declines to be part of ‘one nation, one election’ committee

Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Saturday declined to be a part of the high-level committee on the “one nation, one election” plan hours after he was inducted into the panel.

On Saturday evening, the Centre notified an eight-member high-level committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind to look into the feasibility of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies. Dhowdhury

Govt of India constitutes 8-member committee to examine ‘One nation, One election’.

Former President Ram Nath Kovind appointed as Chairman of the committee. Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Former Rajya Sabha LoP Ghulam Nabi Azad, and others… pic.twitter.com/Sk9sptonp0— ANI (@ANI) September 2, 2023

Chowdhury, the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, refused to be part of the committee calling it a “total eyewash”.

“I have no hesitation whatsoever in declining to serve on the committee whose terms of reference have been prepared in a manner to guarantee its conclusions,” Chowdhury wrote in a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, who is also a member of the “one nation, one election” committee.

In his letter, Chowdhury described holding simultaneous elections in the country as a “constitutionally suspect, pragmatically non-feasible and logistically unimplementable idea”. He added that making a move to implement...