 "'One Nation, One Election' proposal likely to have German blueprint")
In its suggestions submitted to the high-level committee for ‘one nation, one election’ on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that elections to the Lok Sabha (LS), legislative Assemblies, and panchayats should be held simultaneously on the basis of a common electoral roll for all three.
The BJP said implementing ‘one nation, one election’, “an idea whose time has come”, would require amending the provisions of the Constitution of India, the Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the Delimitation Act, 1951. The party expressed hope that the high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind would build consensus on the issue.
During their appearance before the committee on Tuesday evening, BJP National President J P Nadda and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav proposed that the Election Commission of India, at least in the first phase, should target synchronising elections to the LS and Assemblies. To hold simultaneous LS and Assembly polls, the BJP suggested a review of constitutional and legal provisions. The party said that elections to civic bodies and panchayats, organised by the state Election Commission, could be conducted with the LS and Vidhan Sabha elections in the second phase. However, the BJP insisted that all elections should be held based on a common electoral roll.
The party said that simultaneous LS, Assembly, and panchayat polls could still be held over several days, as is currently the case, but synchronised to be conducted across the country at one juncture. The BJP argued that the multiplicity of elections leads to the wastage of public money. According to the party, “Once election dates are known, all political parties take short-term and populist decisions” instead of policy-oriented ones.
The BJP contended that multiple elections contribute to political instability, negatively impacting the economy and “widening political, religious, and caste divisions”.
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Nadda said that ‘one nation, one election’ would increase the flow of foreign and corporate investments.
The BJP highlighted that at least five to seven Assembly elections and countless panchayat and civic elections are held every year during a five-year term of the LS. The party pointed to the example of Maharashtra, where it claimed that the model code of conduct remained in force in some parts of the state for 307 of the 365 days in 2016-17 due to the multiplicity of elections, which hindered development.
The BJP noted that LS and Assembly elections were held simultaneously from 1952 to 1967. In its annual report for the year 1983, the Election Commission favoured ‘one nation, one election’, a sentiment reiterated by the 170th report of the Law Commission in 1999 and the 79th report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice in 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former President Pranab Mukherjee have also supported simultaneous polls, the BJP said.
The BJP argued that multiple elections lead to the enforcement of the model code of conduct at least thrice in states, hampering governance and administrative work, leading to a plateau in economic growth, creating fertile ground for corrupt practices, and being financially burdensome on political parties and governments.
Nadda said that the deployment of security personnel for elections instead of ensuring internal security, and the deployment of teachers on poll duty, hurts academics.
At least four Assembly elections are scheduled to be held along with the 2024 LS polls. These are Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh.
Assembly polls in Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Haryana, and Jammu & Kashmir are also slated for later this year, with Delhi and Bihar going to polls in 2025.
