Simultaneous Polls

BJP ally and Union minister Chirag Paswan on Saturday asked the opposition to support the bills proposing simultaneous elections to end the debate over Union Budgets allegedly favouring poll-bound states after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a host of development initiatives for Bihar. The Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas) leader's jibe at the opposition came after some of its MPs linked the Bihar-centric announcements in the Union Budget to the assembly polls scheduled to be held in the eastern state later this year. The Union minister slammed the criticism, wondering why opposition parties are objecting to the development measures for Bihar. "In such a case they (opposition parties) should not fight the polls in Bihar. Bihar is also a part of this country and if it has got something, what is wrong with that? Announcements have been made to build IIT, greenfield airports, and food processing chains... All of this will be greatly beneficial for the youth of Bihar. What i

The Joint Parliamentary Committee is tasked with scrutinising the bills proposing simultaneous elections and addressing the concerns raised by Opposition parties

The Rajya Sabha on Friday adopted through voice vote a motion to nominate 12 of its members to the joint committee of Parliament that will scrutinise the two bills proposing simultaneous elections. Soon after the House met following an initial adjournment in the morning, Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar asked Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to move a motion to nominate members of the Rajya Sabha to the panel. Moving the motion, Meghwal said the Upper House of Parliament resolves to nominate 12 members to serve on the joint committee. The members nominated from the Rajya Sabha are Ghanshyam Tiwari, Bhubaneshwar Kalita, Dr K Laxman and Kavita Patidar of the BJP, Sanjay Kumar Jha of the JD(U), Randeep Singh Surjewala and Mukul Wasnik of the Congress, Saket Gokhale of the TMC, P Wilson of the DMK, Sanjay Singh of AAP, Manas Ranjan Mangaraj of the BJD and V Vijaisai Reddy of the YSRCP. Minutes before the Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die, the House on Friday adopted a resolution recommendi

There is an imperative need for holding simultaneous elections for various reasons as polls have become expensive and time-consuming, according to the proposed bill being brought to implement the ambitious 'one nation, one election' plan. According to the constitution amendment bill listed for introduction in the Lok Sabha on Monday, the imposition of a Model Code of Conduct in several parts of the country which are poll-bound puts on hold the entire development programmes and causes disruption of normal public life. Frequent poll code imposition also impacts the functioning of services and curtails the involvement of manpower from their core activities for deployment for prolonged periods for election duties, the 'Constitution (129th) Amendment Bill, 2024' underlined. The bill proposes to insert a new article 82A -- simultaneous elections to the House of the People (Lok Sabha) and all legislative assemblies and to amend Article 83 (Duration of Houses of Parliament), Article 172 ..

Sources say the ruling NDA government is committed to hold simultaneous general and assembly elections

The government on Friday batted for holding simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and state assemblies, saying it would result in huge saving to the public exchequer, as it listed out "imperatives" such as amending the Constitution and bringing all political parties on board before carrying out the gigantic exercise. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said a parliamentary panel had examined the issue of simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies in consultation with various stakeholders, including the Election Commission. The Committee made certain recommendations in this regard. "The matter now stands referred to the Law Commission for further examination to work out a practicable road map and framework for simultaneous elections ...," Rijiju said. Simultaneous elections, he noted, would result in huge savings to the public exchequer and avoid replication of effort on part of administrative and law and order machinery in holding ...

Congress' comments come a day after BJP President Amit Shah made a pitch for holding elections to 12 state Assemblies along with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

The EC is in the process of procuring new EVMs and VVPATs ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

The proposal for simultaneous polls is currently being examined by the Law Commission

In the first of a two-part series, the author argues that while the merits of the proposal to hold simultaneous elections to Parliament and all state Assemblies appear self-evident, the reality might

Rajinikanth believes that simultaneous polls would save time and money of political parties

If simultaneous polls are held in 2019, the tenure of the Yogi Adityanath's BJP government in Uttar Pradesh will be shortened

Would JD (U) be willing that assembly elections in Bihar are also held along with Lok Sabha elections?

The Aam Aadmi Party firmly believes that simultaneous elections will "destroy" India's parliamentary democracy and federalism, its senior leader Ashish Khetan said today. Khetan, who met the chairman of the Law Commission and its members, said AAP will submit a detailed paper to the commission outlining the party's position on the matter. The Law Commission had on June 14 written to all recognised political parties seeking their views on the issue. "Met Law Commission Chairman & Members. Told them that AAP firmly believes that simultaneous elections will destroy our parliamentary democracy & federalism & it will mean mutilating the basic structure of our Constitution. We will soon submit a detailed paper before the Comm (sic)," he tweeted. Seeking to give shape to the government's concept of "one nation, one election", the commission's internal working paper has recommended holding Lok Sabha and Assembly polls simultaneously but in two phases beginning 2019. The second ...

Assembly polls in Odisha have been held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha election since 2004

If India is a union of states, as the constitution envisaged, states should be able to sack inefficient governments mid-way and choose new ones

In concluding part of the series, the author says the proposal for simultaneous polls strikes at the root of the grand design of the Constitution based on dual polity that has served us well so far

Simultaneous elections would imply elections taking place for all three tiers of the government in a synchronised manner

The noise and chaos of India's democracy is what keeps it alive and kicking

On penal action for levelling allegations against the EC, Rawat said that the poll panel has never considered it