Simultaneous polls on top of BJP CMs meet agenda on Feb 28

Chief ministers of BJP-ruled states and deputy chief ministers of states where the BJP is in alliance, will attend a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to review development work and to plan a strategy for the upcoming polls in some states.

But topping the agenda is Modi's idea of holding a wider debate on simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

A resolution may be passed at the meeting, urging the Centre and other stake holders to take "concrete steps" in this regard even though senior BJP leaders including party chief Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley have asserted that the next Lok Sabha polls in 2019 would be held on schedule.

Shah, in particular, has held that the proposal would only be pursued after the next parliamentary elections.

Confirming the agenda, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said on Monday that "There's a meeting of CMs on February 28 in Delhi. We will discuss and try for a consensus on holding simultaneous elections for state Assemblies and Parliament."

The BJP has, apparently, circulated to its chief ministers with a 10-point action plan.

A three-page concept note sent to them has mooted that the party should strive to create a consensus on the issue by engaging the local opposition leaders and regional parties.

The note has even suggested that their Assemblies have a debate on the subject.

As part of the 'one-nation-one-election' plan, the party has suggested the setting up of a committee of senior bureaucrats and a minister to promote the idea.

The BJP chief ministers have been told to name a senior minister who can be deputed to take the issue forward politically.

So far, the Opposition parties have been lukewarm to the idea.

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi has, however, told her party leaders to brace up for simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies in some states by the year-end.

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are some of the major BJP-governed states that are to go for polls this year end.

Reversing his earlier view, former president Pranab Mukherjee said holding simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections was "very difficult to implement."

Delivering a talk last week, he said clubbing of the elections "artificially" would deny states their right to a "representative government."