1 nation, 1 election: Govt sets ball rolling, with panel under President Kovind

Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said that once the committee submits its report, it will be discussed in the public domain and Parliament.

At least two Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled states, UP’s Yogi Adityanath and Assam’s Himanta Biswa Sarma, “welcomed” the naming of Kovind as the committee’s chair.

Earlier in the day, BJP president J P Nadda visited Kovind at his residence in New Delhi.

In a tweet, Joshi said, “India is the mother of democracy and our democracy is a mature democracy. There has been a long and rich tradition of discussing subjects related to the interest of the country. Right now only a committee has been constituted to discuss the topic of ‘One nation, One election’ and to know the opinion of the people. The agenda for the upcoming special session of Parliament will be shared with the nation soon.”

He said elections to the Lok Sabha and Assemblies were held together until 1967, which created a “good atmosphere for development in the country”. He said frequent elections lead to “problems in the decision-making process”.

A PTI report said Opposition leaders alleged that the meeting of the INDIA alliance had rattled the ruling BJP and forced the government to take a decision to set up the committee. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge called the government’s move a “diversion and distraction”.

As recently as July 27, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the issue was being examined by the Law Commission.

“The matter now stands referred to the Law Commission for further examination to work out a practicable road map and framework for simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies,” he said.

While addressing Parliament in June 2019, the then President, Kovind, had said the “one nation, simultaneous elections” was the “need of the hour”.

“During the last few decades, due to frequent elections being held in some part of the country or the other, the pace and continuity of development programmes have been impacted. Our countrymen have demonstrated their wisdom by delivering a clear verdict both at State and National issues. ‘One Nation – Simultaneous Elections’ is the need of the hour, which would facilitate accelerated development, thereby benefiting our countrymen,” he had said.

He had asked MPs to seriously consider the suggestion.

In 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while addressing the All-India Presiding Officers’ Conference, said there was a need to deliberate on “one nation, one election”.

He had said that one electoral roll should be used for Lok Sabha and Assembly elections. “Why are we wasting so much money and time?” he had asked.

In its manifesto for the 2019 and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had promised to work towards simultaneous polls.

In the 2019 manifesto, the party said: “We are committed to the idea of simultaneous elections for Parliament, State assemblies and local bodies to reduce expenditure, ensure efficient utilisation of government resources and security forces and for effective policy planning. We will try to build consensus on this issue with all parties.”

The party had also said it would work toward a common electoral roll. While promising to work with other parties to evolve a consensus on the issue in the 2014 manifesto, the BJP had said holding simultaneous elections would “ensure certain stability for State governments”.

In 2015, when a Parliamentary Standing Committee sought their view, the Opposition Congress, TMC, CPI and NCP, now part of the INDIA alliance, had all rejected the idea of holding simultaneous elections.

The Congress had said “the proposal of holding simultaneous elections, ideal as it may sound is impractical, unworkable and can lead to a scenario where the necessary balance in Indian democracy given the diversity of the country is lost,” the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice said in its report in 2015.

The TMC rejected the idea, saying the Constitution provides for a five-year term of the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies and can only be extended in the case of emergency. “Further, the party has stated that postponement of elections is anti-democratic and unconstitutional. However, the party has submitted that it supports holding of simultaneous elections to Panchayats and Municipal bodies,” the report said.

The CPI said the proposal looked “ideal”, but there were many practical problems. “There will be midterm polls in the States, due to political instability in the States. The terms of such Legislative Assemblies cannot be reduced, to have simultaneous elections to Legislative Assemblies and Parliament. It will be undemocratic. There is a possibility of midterm polls for Parliament also, due to the ruling party losing majority, as it happened earlier. To conduct the elections simultaneously, all the Legislative Assemblies cannot be unilaterally abolished for no fault of them. This idea is unscientific and impracticable.”

The NCP told the committee that the proposal was “not feasible”.

The AIMIM had said there was little feasibility in the current scenario. “Even amending certain Articles of the Constitution would not be enough to ensure simultaneous polls. Fractured verdicts or unstable governments cannot be avoided in any democracy and Indian democracy is no exception,” the party said.

The report said the AIADMK, AGP, IUML and the SAD supported the idea.