The Centre’s initiative of ‘one nation, one election’ was ‘unconstitutional’ and was being brought with a political motive, DMK senior and Tamil Nadu Forests Minister K Ponmudy said on Saturday. Speaking at the DMK legal wing’s third state conference that began here, he said “the move is unconstitutional and is being brought with a political motive.”
Terming the move to enforce simultaneous poll as an attempt to dispense with the five-year term of assemblies and downsizing the states to union territories, senior advocate Kapil Sibal said states will not be in the picture at all if one nation, one election law was enforced.
“It will destroy the very federal structure of our country. The preamble of the Constitution says that India is a union of states. You have diminished the states,.. You are destroying the basic structure of the state, and trying for one nation, one poll, one language, political party, one religion,” Sibal said during a discussion on the topic.
“The move amounts to destroying the essence of democratic functioning of our republic. Cronies support the idea without a national debate on it. I don’t think the people of India and Tamil Nadu will tolerate it,” Sibal said and claimed that it would also affect the education, health and other state specific issues.