Speculation rife about early LS polls after President’s speech

Will we witness early Lok Sabha polls? The issue to conduct simultaneous polls to the assemblies and Lok Sabha was raised twice on Monday- first by the President of India, Ram Nath Kovind and later by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This has led to widespread speculation that the Lok Sabha elections to be conducted in 2019 may be advanced to 2018 itself. During his address to the joint sitting of Parliament, Kovind made a pitch to conduct polls to the assembly and Parliament simultaneously.

The same was reiterated by Modi at a meeting of NDA leaders. He told the leaders that they could start a debate on the matter and create a positive atmosphere on this issue. He also said that a continuous cycle of elections hurt development as it was a huge financial burden.

The prospect of simultaneous polls across the country may not be a possibility owing to the different terms of office in various state governments. However the BJP could bring forward the Lok Sabha elections to coincide with the three north Indian states, Telangana, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. This could be a possibility of the incumbent parties agree to the same.

OneIndia News