Andhra Pradesh in favour of simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha, assemblies

AMARAVATI: The Andhra Pradesh government today backed the idea to hold simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies and even suggested that polls to urban and rural local bodies too be held within one year thereon.

Governor E S L Narasimhan articulated the state's stand while addressing the joint session of the AP Legislative Council and the Assembly on the opening day of the Budget session in the new Legislature building in Amaravati.

"My government is in full agreement with the view that elections to both state assemblies and Lok Sabha be held simultaneously so that Centre and state governments could pay their undivided attention to issues of policy and governance.

We will go a step further and suggest that elections to urban and rural local bodies too should be held within one year of the elections to the State and Central legislative Houses," the Governor said.

"Historically, elections to state assemblies and Lok Sabha began together but over the years, for varied reasons, they were de-coupled. Now the situation has come to a stage that we conduct elections in significantly large parts of the country almost every year, if not throughout the year. Political parties, and therefore governments, have to continually keep an eye on electoral calculations," Narasimhan pointed out.

Simultaneous polls would give governments a "full four years of undistracted" time to address issues of governance, the Governor said, adding "it is desirable" to have a national debate involving all sections of people.