Start with LS & Assembly polls, synchronise local body polls later: BJP to Kovind panel

After meeting the committee, Nadda told reporters that the Representation of the People Act should be amended after building a “consensus” to enable simultaneous elections. He added that the party supports the idea of a common electoral roll and Voter ID for all elections.

He said the Model Code of Conduct is always in force in some part of the country or the other, affecting administration and “good governance”. He added that frequent elections lead to a “financial burden” on political parties and the government and this becomes a cause of “corruption”. He said security forces, teachers, health department staff and administrative services officers are deployed in large numbers for election duty, leading to their work being affected.

“We have requested that there should be one photo identity card which is valid for Lok Sabha, State Assembly and panchayat polls. There should be one voter list for Lok Sabha, State Assembly and panchayat. If it can’t be done immediately, then Lok Sabha and Assemblies should be done together and later think of the panchayat (polls). But all panchayat elections should be together, otherwise the MCC will be in force repeatedly. In the long run, the three elections should be together, and for that there should be consensus, amendment to the RP Act and the activities to be taken up after delimitation should be done,” Nadda said.

The BJP’s submission to the committee is in line with the party’s manifesto promises in 2014 and 2019, in which it said it would work towards simultaneous elections. The 2019 manifesto had said the party would work to “build consensus on this issue with all parties”, while the 2014 had also mentioned a common electoral roll.

The committee had been set up by the Union Law Ministry on September 2 to suggest ways to hold Lok Sabha, state assembly, municipalities and panchayat elections simultaneously. As a part of its consultations, the committee had in October written to national and state parties seeking their views on simultaneous elections. Since then, it has been meeting political parties to discuss their views. So far, all Opposition parties that have appeared before the committee have opposed the idea of simultaneous elections.

In the memorandum to the committee, Nadda wrote that the BJP wanted the State Election Commissions to continue holding panchayat elections, but the polls should be timed together with Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. But, he added, this could be discussed in the second phase. He said the time had come to implement One Nation One Election.

Giving the example of Maharashtra, he said the Model Code of Conduct was in place in some part of the state or the other for 304 of 365 days in 2016-2017.