TIL Desk/National/Aurangabad/ Putting to rest all speculation, Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat has emphatically ruled out the possibility of holding simultaneous elections to the state assemblies along with the Lok Sabha polls anytime soon. Rawat also said a legal framework is needed to be in place for holding simultaneous polls.
There has been some speculation in the recent weeks that Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Mizoram due this year end may be deferred and held simultaneously along with the Lok Sabha elections, scheduled for April-May 2019.
While the term of the Mizoram Assembly ends on December 15, the terms of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan assemblies will end on January 5, January 7 and January 20, 2019, respectively. “Koi chance nahi” (no chance at all), Rawat told a select media meet in Aurangabad when asked if it was feasible to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections in the near future.
His comments also come against the backdrop of BJP president Amit Shah’s recent call for a “healthy and open debate” among stakeholders for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies.
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