14 parties to attend Law Commission's three-day meet on simultaneous elections; Congress, CPI likely to skip

The Law Commission of India is holding a three-day consultation on 7, 8 and 11 July with political parties across the country to discuss the feasibility of conducting simultaneous Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections. Representatives from 14 parties will be attending the meet, with the Congress and Communist Party of India (CPI) being the only conspicuous absentees. According to  News18, the two are yet to respond to the invitation. [caption id=“attachment_4384835” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. AP[/caption] According to  The Times of India, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) requested to offer its views later. Regional parties such as Samajwadi Party, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Trinamool Congress, Biju Janata Dal, AIADMK, RLD and Shiromani Akali Dal have all confirmed their participation. The law commission wrote to the seven recognised national and 59 state parties to attend the meet. Trinamool Congress’ Kalyan Banerjee was the first one to respond to the consultation invite, reported  All India Radio. The report further added that the Commission has prepared a draft paper on ‘Simultaneous Elections — Constitutional and Legal Perspectives’ and has asked for stakeholders’ opinion, including political parties, constitutional experts, bureaucrats, academia and the public, before finalising it and forwarding it to the government. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has on a number of occasions emphasised on the need to hold simultaneous elections to help save time and money, and ensure political parties pay more attention to governance. The feasibility of conducting simultaneous polls has been in discussion for months. In April, the law commission had said simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies can be held in two phases from 2019, provided that at least two provisions of the Constitution are amended and ratified by a majority of the states. Earlier in January this year, at a meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, members belonging to the Congress, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India-Marxist and Trinamool Congress expressed their opposition to the idea being floated by Modi.