Simultaneous elections will save Rs 7 lakh crore: House panel chief

The 41-member JPC is headed by BJP MP PP Chaudhary and has been touring states for consultation with stakeholders on two Bills—The Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill 2024 and The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024—that propose “One Nation, One Election”. Gujarat is the seventh state that the Committee is visiting. Around 20 members of the committee are visiting Gujarat.

The Chief Secretary was accompanied by secretaries of several departments of the state government.

Interacting with media persons from Gift City Club in the state capital, Chaudhary said that the panel held a meeting with the state’s bureaucrats, and would now be meeting the chief minister, assembly speaker, deputy chief minister, civil societies, members of the bar council, etc., over the next two days.

Top sources in the government said the chief secretary made a 45-minute-long presentation on “difficulties and costs” involved in holding separate elections and why the side effects should be minimised by holding simultaneous elections without compromising democratic values. Sources said that the bottom line of the presentation was to highlight that instead of being in the ‘election mode’ all the time, the country should be in ‘development mode’.

In response to a question on information shared by the bureaucrats, Chaudhary praised Das’s presentation. “For the first time, we saw a presentation that had many shortlisted points on issues that had not been brought before us earlier. But now, we have got the input. We told them to further improve it, and then we will send it to all state governments so that they too can prepare such reports,” Chaudhary said.

Chaudhary suggested that some of the points that could be covered in the report include loss to industries owing to factors like migration of workers, loss of employment, loss of GST, and eventual loss to the economy, loss of tourism income, etc.

Earlier, he said that people should understand why “One Nation, One Election” was necessary for the country, adding that such elections were held from 1952 to 1967, but the cycle was discontinued when seven state assemblies were dissolved.

Chaudhary said that in 1983, the Election Commission had also suggested holding elections of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies together in ‘national interest’. He added that similar suggestions were also given by the Law Commission of India and a parliamentary standing committee at different times.

Chaudhary said the panel had consulted a number of legal luminaries, including six former chief justices of India and noted economists, to see if the Bill on One Nation, One Election was against the federal and basic structure of the Constitution, and the fundamental rights of the people.

“All of them opined that it (the Bill) is not against it and it is in national interest to bring this law (on One Nation, One Election),” Chaudhary said.

Chaudhary said that if elections are held simultaneously, it would then save Rs 7 lakh crore and the amount could be utilised for infrastructure, welfare of the poor, education, health and other such issues of common people.

He added that it is the objective of the Committee to ensure that the law would be framed in the interest of the country and common people, and not in the interest of any political party.