Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 1: The Centre on Friday constituted a committee with the former President of India Ram Nath Kovind as chairman to find out whether India can have a “one nation, one election” system ensuing simultaneous national and state elections countrywide.
Signalling a big step forward on the long-debated proposal discussed by multiple panels, the Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi declared that the committee has been constituted, and that one needed to await its report for any further news on the issue.
But other than Joshi’s announcement about constituting the committee, no official notification had been forthcoming from the government till late evening. No information was either available on other members of the committee or the terms of reference that they would be operating under. Right after news broke of the formation of such a committee, BJP president J.P. Nadda called on Kovind at his residence in New Delhi.
“Right now, a committee has been constituted. A report of the committee will come out which will discuss its prospects. It will be discussed in public domain and when it will come in Parliament, there will be discussion there too,” Joshi said.
The move comes a day after the Centre announced a special session of the parliament from September 18 to 22, without revealing the agenda. The surprise announcement was followed by intense speculation that a bill on ‘one nation, one election’ would be tabled during the session, but no one from the government has confirmed this either.
‘One nation, one election’ refers to holding the Lok Sabha and state assembly polls simultaneously across the country but what the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and on his behalf the BJP, was espousing as his novel idea, used to be the norm in the country till 1967 after which political instability in various states leading to untimely dissolution of the state assemblies and holding elections afresh disturbed the schedule.
After the Constitution was adopted in 1950, polls to the Lok Sabha and all state assemblies were held simultaneously every five years between 1951 and 1967. India voted simultaneously for the Centre and states in 1952, 1957, 1962 and 1967.
Conducting polls simultaneously was the norm in India until 1967 and four elections were held this way. The practice stopped after some state assemblies were dissolved prematurely in 1968-69. The Lok Sabha was also, for the first time, dissolved a year ahead of schedule in 1970 and mid-term elections had been held in 1971. The process got more complicated as new states started emerging and some old ones were reorganised.
The BJP and Modi have spoken on the issue on several occasions, and it was also a part of the party’s manifesto for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. In its 2014 Lok Sabha Election Manifesto, the BJP had promised to evolve a method for holding the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously.
Modi had spoken on simultaneous elections in 2016 and, shortly after the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, he had called an all-party meeting to discuss the issue. The meeting had been skipped by several opposition parties. The Prime Minister has argued that holding elections every few months puts a burden on the nation’s resources and causes a break in governance.
In one of the first political reactions to the setting up of the committee, Communist Party of India General Secretary D Raja said the BJP was obsessed with one nation, one party and it has been jittery since the opposition united under the INDIA banner. “One nation, one election is not a new issue. It has been discussed for several years. Ever since the BJP came to power, it has been obsessed with one nation, one culture; one nation, one religion; one nation, one language; one nation, one tax; now one nation, one election; then one nation, one party; one nation, one leader. That is the obsession the BJP is suffering from,” Raja said.
“Dr Ambedkar said parliament is supreme in our democracy, but the BJP is undermining parliament. Increasingly, our parliament is becoming redundant. But they called a special session. Nobody knows what the purpose is. Ever since the opposition parties came together under the INDIA banner, the BJP has been jittery and desperate. Modi is jittery,” he added.
Experts said making the ‘one nation, one election’ proposal a reality will require a series of constitutional amendments and the support of two-thirds of the members in both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha besides at least 50 per cent of the state assemblies.
The idea to revert to simultaneous polls was suggested in the annual report of the Election Commission in 1983. Later, the Law Commission report referred to it in 1999. The Law Commission in 2018 submitted a draft report backing the idea of simultaneous polls. The commission also recommended changes to the electoral laws and constitutional provisions and examined the legal and constitutional constraints.
The Law Commission says simultaneous elections can only be held through appropriate amendments to the Constitution. It also said that at least 50% of the states must ratify the constitutional amendment.
In 2019, BJP leader Vinay Sahasrabuddhe, a former Rajya Sabha MP, was tasked by the party’s leadership with raising awareness about the concept of “one nation, one poll” and evaluating the idea. A two-day seminar was organised and consultations took place. Later that year a report was submitted to the Prime Minister
In 2020, while addressing the concluding session of the All India presiding officers conference, Modi again pitched for simultaneous polls across the nation and one voters’ list.
Soon after Joshi’s announcement of constitution of Kovind committee, several Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States – Yogi Adityanath of Uttar Pradesh, Himanta Biswa Sarma of Assam, and Pramod Sawant of Goa — gave statements in support of the move. “Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken a landmark decision by appointing a commission to look after the issue of Óne Nation, One Election. I am very happy that a person of stature like [former president of India] Ram Nath Kovind has accepted the offer. Multiple elections involve lots of money and because every time India is in election mode, development suffers,” Sarma said.
Quite apart from canvassing support from various political parties and stakeholders, holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies would require at least five constitutional amendments and a large number of additional electronic voting machines (EVMs) and paper-trail machines. The five amendments in the Constitution would entail changes to Article 83 relating to the duration of Houses of Parliament, Article 85 relating to the dissolution of the Lok Sabha by the President, Article 172 relating to the duration of the State legislatures, Article 174 relating to dissolution of the State legislatures, and Article 356 relating to the imposition of President’s Rule in States. In addition, the representatives of the people’s act would also have to be rectified.
A parliamentary panel had examined the issue of simultaneous elections in consultation with various stakeholders, including the Election Commission of India. The matter now stands referred to the Law Commission for further examination to work out a “practicable road map and framework” for simultaneous elections, officials said.