On the eve of a meeting of BJP chief ministers in Delhi on 'one nation, one poll' theory, Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani has proposed that elections to local bodies in a state should be held alongside Lok Sabha and assembly polls. "It is being discussed that both Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha elections be held together as this will save energy and (public) money spent on holding elections every six months. "Simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies will save the cost and energy involved in holding the elections," Rupani told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Gandhinagar. He said municipality and panchayat elections should be held together at state level so that the government can focus solely on work for a period of five years. In Gujarat, elections for village panchayats were held on February 4, followed by municipality polls on February 17, nearly two months after the assembly polls. While the BJP and the Congress both claimed victory in the panchayat polls, in municipality polls, the saffron party won 47 bodies and the opposition party 16 bodies. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pitching the idea of simultaneous polls which has been criticised by the Congress.
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