The High Level Committee on ‘One Nation One Election’ held its meeting with the Trinamool Congress (TMC) delegation on Tuesday. TMC’s Sudip Bandopadhyay and Kalyan Banarjee attended the meeting on behalf on the party.
Earlier on Monday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced that she would be unable to attend the ‘One Nation, One Election’ meeting in Delhi.
The chief minister was expected to attend a meeting in Delhi called by the Central government to discuss the ‘One Nation, One Election’ proposal.
“I have cancelled my trip to Delhi because the state’s budget is on February 8…and because I have only 2 days left, I have cancelled my trip to Delhi due to an emergency… I am sending Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Banerjee on behalf of my party,” CM Banerjee said.
Earlier, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote to the high-level committee on ‘One Nation, One Election’, saying that she does not agree with the concept of simultaneous polls as the Indian Constitution does not follow the concept.
“Does the Indian Constitution follow the concept of ‘One Nation, One Government? I am afraid it does not. Our Constitution conceives of the Indian nation in a federal manner. Therefore, the Indian nation has been given a Union Government and several State governments. If the framers of the Indian Constitution did not mention the concept of ‘One Nation, One Government, how have you arrived at the concept of ‘One Nation, One Election’?” the Trinamool Congress supremo said in her letter.
On February 2, the High-Level Committee (HLC) on One Nation One Election, chaired by Ram Nath Kovind, former President of India, held a consultation round with a delegation from Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) comprising Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, R Dinesh, President, Sanjiv Puri, President Designate, Marut Sen Gupta, Deputy Director General, Amita Sarkar, Deputy Director General, Binoy Job, Executive Director, and G Srivastava, Chief Economic Strategy and Project Coordination.
The delegation made a presentation before the committee in which the views of the industry on ONOE and its impact were highlighted, after which they presented a formal memorandum. (ANI)
