When inflation is high, it is wiser to be a miser. Similarly, it is wiser to run a country by cutting frivolous expenses and using the savings for its welfare. Indians’ hard-earned money can be saved by conducting simultaneous elections.
The elections to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha took place from April 2019 to May 2019 in seven phases. Elections to four state assemblies, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim, were also held during this period. These were followed by Maharashtra and Haryana elections in October and Jharkhand polls in December. In 2020, elections to NCT of Delhi were held in February, followed by Bihar in October-November. Within 16 months of the general elections, five state assembly elections were conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI). This is not counting local body elections.
Such frequent elections require the constant engagement of resources by both the state machinery and the ECI, negatively impacting the governance, development, and welfare activities in poll-bound regions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested a way out of this cycle by restoring simultaneous elections — “One Nation One Election”. Addressing the concluding session of the 80th All India Presiding Officers Conference, PM Modi urged for simplification of laws to enable “One Nation, One Election” and the creation of a single voters’ list.
In July 2019, I had introduced a Private Members’ Bill (PMB) seeking the insertion of a new Article 324A, to direct the ECI to conduct elections to the House of the People and legislative assemblies of all states simultaneously.
Historical precedents
The idea of conducting simultaneous elections is not new to India. The first general election of the Lok Sabha and various state assembly elections were held simultaneously in 1951-52. This continued in three subsequent elections held in 1957, 1962, and 1967.
In 2015, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in its 79th report, analysed the feasibility of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies.
A pressing problem
An election is the ultimate expression of the faith of people in a democracy. Poll outcomes represent people’s will and decide the fate of a country. Conducting elections is a daunting process as citizens’ money and time are at stake.
The cost of conducting the 2009 Lok Sabha elections was about Rs 1,115 crore. For 2014, this cost more than tripled to about Rs 3,870 crore. Data for the 2019 elections is still awaited.
Due to asynchronous Lok Sabha and legislative assembly elections including by-poll results, there is prolonged enforcement of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). This creates roadblocks in the public service and developmental activities, at least twice or thrice every year in one part or another of the country.
Elections also involve a huge investment of human resources. CRPF and police personnel are deployed so that the electoral process can be conducted safely. Various people employed by government departments and schools are taken off their normal duties and assigned to work for the ECI or state election commissions.
Frequent elections lead to disruption of normal public life and impact the functioning of essential services. Precious time and money is spent on the formulation of the voter list from the draft list prepared by the Election Commission.
In its report on Demands for Grants (2016-17) of the Law Ministry, the Standing Committee had pointed out that the ECI and state ECs have separate electoral rolls. “They carry out registration of voters and update electoral rolls separately. The numbers of voters in their electoral rolls usually vary,” it had said. Why should the two lists vary when every Indian citizen above 18 is a valid voter for all elections?
Busting ONOE myths
Several myths have been spread about the ONOE. The first is that simultaneous elections will make local issues irrelevant. Those holding this view argue that elections for state assemblies and Lok Sabha are fought on different issues where regional parties target local issues while national parties target national issues. So, there is a possibility that regional parties will not be able to raise the local issues strongly.
However, on comparing the vote share percentage (sourced from ECI) of the BJP (a national party), in general elections and the simultaneously conducted four state assembly elections in 2019, shows that this argument is misleading. The BJP’s vote share for the state assembly polls is lower than what it got during the general election 2019. This means that those who voted for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls didn’t vote for the BJP when choosing the state government. This could be seen in all four state elections that year and in 2014 also.
The second myth is that conducting simultaneous elections will be a blow to federal democracy. To those people who advance the claim that ONOE would be against democratic federalism and who make the charge that conducting simultaneous elections is a step towards presidential form of election, I humbly ask: Were the architects of the modern Indian nation and members of the Constituent Assembly anti-democratic and anti-federalism? Wasn’t India a federal democracy during the elections of the first three Lok Sabha?
A way forward
Many feasibility studies and reports are appreciating the proposed solution of ONOE. The ECI, Law Commission, and Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Personnel Ministries have, in principle, supported the idea of simultaneous elections and a single voter list.
In 2017, the Niti Aayog published a discussion paper authored by Bibek Debroy and Kishore Desai, analysing the “what”, “why” and “how” of simultaneous elections. It offers an in-depth analysis which shall be read by all and charts out the plan to synchronise the assembly elections with general elections in two-phases, as was in the Standing Committee report. It also explains how to avoid the disruptions of simultaneous elections once they are synchronised.
We need more informed conversations, in the public domain as well as at the national-state level. One Nation One Election and a single voter list offer a “one-stop solution” to mitigate the stress caused by the recurring election cycle.
The writer is a Senior Advocate and BJP Lok Sabha MP
ONOE and a single voter list offer a “one-stop solution” to mitigate the stress caused by recurring election cycle
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18.03.2024
When inflation is high, it is wiser to be a miser. Similarly, it is wiser to run a country by cutting frivolous expenses and using the savings for its welfare. Indians’ hard-earned money can be saved by conducting simultaneous elections.
The elections to constitute the 17th Lok Sabha took place from April 2019 to May 2019 in seven phases. Elections to four state assemblies, Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Sikkim, were also held during this period. These were followed by Maharashtra and Haryana elections in October and Jharkhand polls in December. In 2020, elections to NCT of Delhi were held in February, followed by Bihar in October-November. Within 16 months of the general elections, five state assembly elections were conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI). This is not counting local body elections.
Such frequent elections require the constant engagement of resources by both the state machinery and the ECI, negatively impacting the governance, development, and welfare activities in poll-bound regions.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has suggested a way out of this cycle by restoring simultaneous elections — “One Nation One Election”. Addressing the concluding session of the 80th All India Presiding Officers Conference, PM Modi urged for simplification of laws to enable “One Nation, One Election” and the creation of a single voters’ list.
In July 2019, I had introduced a Private Members’ Bill (PMB) seeking the insertion of a new Article 324A, to direct the ECI to conduct elections to the House of the People and legislative assemblies of all........
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