'One Nation, One Election': Former President Ram Nath Kovind to head committee formed by Modi govt

The Centre on Thursday formed a committee for 'One Nation, One Election' under the leadership of former president Ramnath Kovind.

On Thursday, it was speculated that the central government may introduce the 'One Nation, One Election' bill during Parliament's special session from September 18 to 22. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been pushing this idea to hold assembly and general elections simultaneously. A move which will bring down the cost of holding elections and also save time for governance.

WHAT IS ONE NATION ONE ELECTION?

The idea of 'One Nation, One Election' refers to holding simultaneous elections across the country. This means that elections for the Lok Sabha and all state assemblies across India will be held simultaneously — with voting presumably taking place around the same time.

Currently, elections to the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha are held separately — after the five-year term of the incumbent government ends or if it is dissolved due to various reasons.

Pros

One of the major reasons to hold simultaneous elections would be to cut down on the costs involved in separate elections. As per reports, a whopping Rs 60,000 crore was spent on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The amount includes what was spent by the political parties fighting the polls and the spending by the Election Commission of India (ECI) to hold the elections.

Further, supporters of simultaneous polls argue that it will increase efficiency in the administrative set up throughout the country, since it slows down considerably during polling. Normal administrative duties are affected by elections as officials engage in polling duties.

It will also help ensure continuity in the policies and programs of the central and state governments. Currently, the Model Code of Conduct is imposed whenever elections are set to take place, putting a ban on the launch of new projects for public welfare for that period.

Further, the Law Commission said holding simultaneous elections will boost voter turnout as it will be more convenient for them to cast votes at once.

Cons

Holding simultaneous elections would require constitutional amendments to sync up the terms of the state legislative assemblies with that of the Lok Sabha. Further, the Representation of the People Act as well as other parliamentary procedures will also need to be amended.

The major fear of regional parties over simultaneous elections is that they would not be able to raise their local issues strongly as national issues take centre stage. They would also be unable to compete with national parties in terms of election expenditure and election strategy.

Further, a study conducted by the IDFC Institute in 2015 found that there is a 77 per cent chance that voters will choose the same winning political party or alliance in the state assembly and the Lok Sabha if elections are held simultaneously. However, if elections are held six months apart, only 61 per cent of the voters would choose the same party.