Monday (Jan 29) was a busy day with several significant political developments. Most importantly, it witnessed the issue of having early polls in 2018. President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have opined to have simultaneous polls for Assemblies and Parliament.
This has triggered the speculations that general elections for Lok Sabha, which is scheduled to take place in 2019, may be advanced for 2018.
In his address to the joint sitting of Parliament on Monday, President Ram Nath Kovind has made a pitch to conduct simultaneous polls to the Assemblies and Parliament. Later Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also opined the same at a meeting of NDA leaders.
According to reports, Modi said to have asked NDA leaders to take up the issue in a positive way and wanted them to promote it positively to create a ‘positive atmosphere’ around early polls. He reportedly told that frequent elections could be a halt to progress and it is also a financial burden to public exchequer.
However, in reality, it is highly unlikely to conduct simultaneous polls for Assemblies and Lok Sabha across the country as several states have different terms of offices for their governments.
Whereas, Modi and NDA could plan for early polls in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha (formerly Orissa) and three other northern states. If all the incumbent state governments agree to the same, early polls are likely to take place in 2018 itself.