Local body polls should be held within 100 days of election
Moving one step closer to the possibility of holding simultaneous polls in the country, the high powered nine-member committee, led by former President Ram Nath Kovind, has recommended that there should be simultaneous elections in the country.
The 321-pages main report that has more than 15,000 pages of annexures was submitted to President Droupadi Murmu after the panel met her at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The report contains 11 chapters and includes annexures spread over 21 volumes.
‘The Daily Guardian’ on Wednesday reported that the Kovind committee would to submit the report on One Nation One Election soon.
In its first step, it has suggested that the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections must be held simultaneously, and within 100 days of its completion of this exercise, municipality and panchayat polls should be conducted.
For the first simultaneous polls, the tenure of all state assemblies can be for a period ending up to subsequent Lok Sabha elections. For this, no amendment in the Constitution is required.
The committee has stated that in the event of a hung House, no-confidence motion, or any such event, fresh elections should be held to constitute the new Lok Sabha or new legislative assembly for the unexpired remaining term of the Lok Sabha.
If the recommendation of the committee are to be construed as the final wordings on this subject, then the upcoming Lok Sabha elections are likely to be the last polls that will happen in the present format and the first simultaneous polls could be held in 2029. During this period, all states with elections due between June 2024 and May 2029 would see their terms end alongside the 18th Lok Sabha.
Consequently, some state assemblies would have terms of less than five years as a one-time measure to facilitate this synchronisation. This would imply that states like West Bengal, Tamil Nadu that goes to vote in 2026 and Punjab, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh which will go to polls in 2027 will have a curtailed tenure as they will go to assembly polls again in May 2029.
The committee stated that it worked for 191 days since its 2 September 2023 and received 21558 responses from all over India on its email apart from individual feedbacks from representatives of political parties, jurists and other domain experts. Of these, 80 per cent of the respondents supported the idea of simultaneous elections.
Additionally, forty-seven political parties submitted their views and suggestions on the matter with 32 of the parties supporting simultaneous elections, while 15 opposing them. Prominent parties who shared a detailed response against the simultaneous polls include the Aam Aadmi Party, DMK, TMC and AIMIM.
Experts on law including four former Chief Justices of India, twelve former Chief Justices of High Courts, four former Chief Election Commissioners of India, eight State Election Commissioners, Chairman, Law Commission of India and business organizations like the CII, FICCI, ASSOCHAM and eminent economists were also requested for their feedback on the pros and cons of holding simultaneous elections.
The committee has recommended the introduction of Article 324A for enabling simultaneous elections in panchayats and municipalities with the general elections for which an amendment in the Constitution will be required . This will require support of 2/3 members voting will be needed in the Lok Sabha and ratification by one half of the state assemblies
Not a unique experiment
One country, one election is not a unique experiment, because it has happened in 1952, 1957, 1962, 1967, when elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies were held simultaneously.
This sequence was broken when the Legislative Assemblies of some states were dissolved prematurely for various reasons in 1968–69. In 1971, the Lok Sabha election was also held ahead of time.
On one hand, some experts believe that now the population of the country has increased a lot, hence it is not possible to hold elections simultaneously, while on the other hand, some analysts say that if the population of the country has increased, then there will be a shortage of technology and other resources. There has also been development. Therefore the possibility of one country one election cannot be ruled out.
It is said in favour of one country, one election that it is a development-oriented idea. Obviously, due to frequent elections, the Model Code of Conduct has to be implemented again and again in the country. Due to this, the government is not able to take necessary policy decisions and faces problems in implementing various schemes.
Under this, announcement of any project, launch of new schemes or financial approval and appointment process by the ruling party is prohibited after the election notification is issued by the Election Commission. The underlying objective behind this is that the ruling party does not get additional advantage in the elections. Therefore, if elections for Lok Sabha and State Assemblies are held in the country at one go, then the Model Code of Conduct will remain in force for some time, and after that the development works can be completed smoothly.
The second argument in favour of one country, one election is that it will reduce the huge expenditure on repeated elections. Due to frequent elections, there is additional financial burden on the government treasury. The continuous increase in expenditure on elections is proof that it is not good for the economic health of the country.
The third argument of One Nation One Election is that it will help in curbing black money and corruption. It is not hidden from anyone that black money is used openly by political parties and candidates during elections. Although a limit has been set on the expenditure incurred by candidates in elections in the country, no limit has been set on the expenditure incurred by political parties. Some analysts believe that frequent elections provide an opportunity to politicians and parties to disrupt social harmony, which creates situations of unnecessary tension. Such problems can be avoided by holding simultaneous elections.
Another argument for this is that by holding elections simultaneously, there will be no need to deploy government employees and security forces on election duty again and again.
This will save their time and they will also be able to perform their duties properly. Let us tell you that for conducting elections here, services of teachers and government employees are taken, due to which their work gets affected. Not only this, a large number of police and security forces are deployed to conduct uninterrupted elections. Apart from this, common people’s life is also affected due to frequent elections.
Apart from Kovind, the other members of the committee were Amit Shah, Union Minister of Home Affairs and Minister of Cooperation, Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, N.K. Singh, former Chairman, 15th Finance Commission, Dr. Subhash C. Kashyap, former Secretary General, Lok Sabha, Harish Salve, Senior Advocate and Sanjay Kothari, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner. Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) Ministry of Law and Justice was a Special Invitee and Dr. Niten Chandra was the Secretary of the High level Committee.