Will Modi govt opt for simultaneous polls?

Hyderabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a meeting of the Union Council of Ministers on Monday amid a heightened buzz about the likelihood of a Cabinet reshuffle following a series of meetings the PM had with the top brass of the ruling BJP. Poll analysts say that the opportunity that existed in 2019 will be now again available in 2024 (when Parliamentary polls are due) for conducting simultaneous elections as recommended by the Law Commission and suggested by the NITI Ayog.

The tenure of the Rajasthan and Telangana Assemblies end on January 14 and January 16, 2024, respectively. Polls in five states being held together cannot be ruled out at this stage. It is also being said that the government may announce elections in Jammu and Kashmir soon. Similarly, the term of Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh Assemblies and of Odisha would end on different dates in June next year.

At present, the saffron party is in power in Assam, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Sikkim.

It was expecting to surge into south via Karnataka, but it miserably failed.

On the other hand, the Congress is in power in Karnataka in south and Rajasthan in the Vindhya range, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, and Chhattisgarh and JD-U in Bihar.

Hence the BJP may like to keep the political pot boiling by making a move for simultaneous polls. In the backdrop of this scenario, the Cabinet meeting to be held on Monday assumes importance.

A clear picture on the possible reshuffle of the Council of Ministers and massive changes in the organisational structure of the BJP could emerge after the Cabinet meeting. This exercise, sources say, would be completed before Warangal meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 8.