NEW DELHI, Jan 8: The proposal to hold simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all states, popularly known as the “One Nation, One Poll” (ONOP) plan, enjoys strong support from the voters in the country, a sample survey conducted by a media house showed, even as the parliamentary panel constituted to scrutinise the two simultaneous election bills held its first meeting on Wednesday.
Around 80.1% respondents to the survey said they support ONOP, while around 16% said they are not in favour of it and 3.9% said they had no opinion on it. The support for ONOP was highest in Central India, with 90.7% respondents saying they are in favour of it. Next came North India (87.3%) and East India (84%).
Support for simultaneous elections was relatively low in North East India (73.9%) and West India (72.9%), and the least in South India (69.7%). The survey was conducted from December 23-31, 2024 among 4,573 respondents across 29 states and Union Territories of India.
Around 66.1% respondents were based in urban areas while 33.9% belonged to rural areas. Around 73.7% of those surveyed were male and 26.3% were female, with North East registering a more sizeable sample of female respondents. Nearly two-thirds of the survey sample identified as businesspersons or traders, land owning farmers, white-collar workers and homemakers.
Around 81.2% respondents agreed that simultaneous polls will save public money and reduce expenditure, while 80.8% respondents also believed fewer elections will reduce disruptions to daily life.
Nearly 50% respondents expressed confidence that voters will not face problems in differentiating between candidates and parties at national and state levels. Over half the respondents (55.9%) think simultaneous voting for national and state elections will not create confusion among voters.
However, even among respondents who supported ONOP, around one-third feel simultaneous elections could potentially create confusion among voters. This figure was higher among respondents in South and West.
The 39-member joint committee of Parliament is headed by BJP MP PP Chaudhary and includes members of all major parties, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra of the Congress, Sanjay Jha of the JD(U), Shiv Sena’s Shrikant Shinde, AAP’s Sanjay Singh and TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee.
Opposition parties have raised concerns over the bills, while ruling NDA leaders say the burden on the exchequer will be lessened. Opposition MPs have questioned if the country is logistically ready to hold simultaneous elections, pointing out that recent polls in Maharashtra and Jharkhand could not be held together with that in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir.
During the consultation process on the issue, 32 political parties supported the idea while 15 did not, according to former president Ram Nath Kovind, who headed the high-level committee that studied the proposal.
(Manas Dasgupta)