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NEW DELHI: Distancing itself from media reports that it wants to hold assembly polls in 11 states with the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP on Tuesday said its chief Amit Shah has in his letter to the Law Commission made it plain that it would abide by consensus emerging out of “free debate”.

“BJP rejects any such misplaced conception that the party wants 11 state polls with 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Such reports should not find space anywhere. Our party president has not made such a statement anywhere in his letter to the Law Commission,” BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a press conference. The statement came against the backdrop of reports saying that while BJP recognised that holding polls to all state assemblies along with next year’s Lok Sabha elections was not possible, it may be possible to hold 11 assembly polls with Lok Sabha elections.

Sources cited in the report, however, made it clear that they were only speaking about what was possible, insisting that no decision had been taken to shuffle the dates of elections for assemblies and Lok Sabha. On Tuesday, Patra snubbed speculation about change in election schedules, insisting that what party president Amit Shah had said in his letter to the Law Commission was sacrosanct.

“We all abide by the views of the party president. Speculation beyond his statement is misplaced and a figment of imagination,” Patra said. In a letter to the Law Commission on Monday, Shah favoured holding Lok Sabha and assembly polls simultaneously. He dubbed opposition to it as politically motivated, and asserted that it would curb expenditure and ensure the nation was not in “election mode” throughout the year.

However, he also said there was a need for an “open, free and frank” debate among parties and stakeholders. Shah said BJP was committed to this idea and believed that in a progressive democracy like India, elections should be held at a fixed time and for a fixed tenure so that people's representatives could carry out their duties effectively.

Holding simultaneous polls was not merely a principle and it was also successfully practised from 1952 to 1967, he said, adding that several institutions, including the Election Commission, Law Commission and parliamentary committees, had supported it since then. Shah said expenditure in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls was three times more than what was incurred on the 2009 elections, and that simultaneous polls could curb it.

He said the model code of conduct was in force in Maharashtra in 307 of the 365 days in 2016 due to assembly and Lok Sabha bypolls and local elections, hampering development work. Similar examples could be found in many states, Shah said, adding that simultaneous polls would strengthen the federal structure of the country.

