'One Nation, One Election' panel biased, lacks opposition representation: Congress

Mallikarjun Kharge in his letter to the secretary of the ‘One Nation One Election’ panel expresses concern about transparency in election funding, especially with anonymous electoral bonds.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has slammed the panel looking into the possibility of simultaneous general and state elections as biased, alleging it didn’t have enough representation of opposition parties

In a letter to ‘One Nation One Election’ panel secretary Niten Chandra, Kharge said the committee, led by former President of India Ram Nath Kovind, said voters were worried that the consultation process was a farce and a decision had already been taken.

The government says that holding elections to the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha together will save a lot of money and prevent frequent administrative disruptions caused by the poll conduct code.

The letter, a copy of which was shared with the media on January 17, criticises the committee for not conducting a serious and systematic analysis of the pros and cons of the proposal.

Read: Do not agree with concept of 'One Nation, One Election': Mamata Banerjee

Questioning the panel’s impartiality in his four-page letter, Kharge said Kovind had expressed strong support for simultaneous elections during a joint session of Parliament in 2018.

Development process and governance were frequently brought to a standstill because Prime Minister Narendra Modi was too busy with electioneering to pay attention to other matters, the Congress leader said.

The letter also challenged the committee’s claim that simultaneous elections would save money.

Kharge said the estimated cost of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with VVPAT machines was around Rs 3,870 crore, and that of 2019 polls had not been readily made available by the ECI.

“The argument that the cost of conducting elections is extremely high seems baseless. Considering elections are held once in five years, the expenses make up less than 0.02 percent of the total Union budget for the preceding five years,” he said.

Read more: Panel evaluating One Nation, One Election proposal shouldn’t be guided by political calculations

Kharge, the leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha, said when elections are held separately for state assemblies, the respective states bear the costs. People would be willing to bear this expense as the cost of free and fair elections, he added.

The Congress leaders also raised concerns about the alleged lack of transparency in poll funding, flagging anonymous electoral bonds.

The ruling party at the Centre received donations of Rs 10,122 crore during 2016-22, with Rs 5,271.97 crore coming through anonymous electoral bonds, he said.

“If the committee, the government, and ECI is serious about the expenditure made on elections, it would be more appropriate if they could make the funding process more transparent, especially in the matter of electoral bonds,” Kharge said.

Kovind-led panel was set up in October 23. Home minister and BJP leader Amit Shah, former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, chairman of the 15th finance commission NK Singh, former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash C Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve, former chief vigilance commissioner Sanjay Kothari are its members.

Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was also nominated to the panel but he declined to be a part of it.

The Supreme Court is hearing a bunch of petitions that have challenged the validity of electoral bonds, saying they are opaque and are a threat to free and fair elections.