Author – SREAANS SHUKLA
INTRODUCTION
From the time of Independence till 1967 the concept of “one nation one election” was in place meaning the polls for the Lok Sabha and the respective state assemblies were conducted simultaneously across the country. From the late 1960s onwards, the emergency provision contained in Article 356 was used to dissolve State Legislative Assemblies before the expiry of their tenure and other reasons such as hung house, no-confidence motions resulted in early dissolution of house and thus disrupted the cycle of simultaneous polls. Since then, the need for “one nation one election” has constantly been raised through different institutions and reports ranging from Election Commission Annual Report in 1983, 170th Report in 1999 of Law commission, NITI working paper titled “Analysis of Simultaneous Elections and many more.
ANALYSIS
The policy of “one nation one election” has been receiving both the support and the criticism.
It intends to reduce expenditure on elections and expedite the development work which gets
halted during the implementation of Model Code of Conduct (MCC). Organisations such as
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and
Industry (FICCI) have lent their support to the idea of simultaneous elections in their
consultation to the high-level committee formed on simultaneous elections headed by the
former President Ramnath Kovind. Many apex business organisations have also pointed that
simultaneous elections will also help them maintain their production cycle, as the incidence
of workers leaving for their constituencies to cast their votes will be reduced. Workers, in
particular migrant workers, will avoid wage losses and minimise travel costs. At the same
time the execution of “one nation one elections” face complex legal and pragmatic
challenges. The high-level committee on simultaneous elections has proposed many
constitutional amendments to implement the idea of conducting elections to the house of
people and state assemblies simultaneously along with the elections of local bodies. The most
disputed of which remains the amendment to article 83(3) and Article 172(3) which states
“Where the House of People/state legislative assembly is dissolved sooner than the expiry of
its full term, the period between its date of dissolution and five years from the date appointed
for its first meeting shall be referred to as its unexpired term.” And the elections in situation
of prior dissolution of the house shall only be conducted for remaining of unexpired term.
This amendment is under heavy scrutiny as it disrupts the idea of full-fledged government of
5 years which undermines the strength of democratically elected government. But it is not the
first time it will happen in 1957 for maintaining the cycle of simultaneous elections Election Commission of India (ECI) in The Report on the Second General Elections in India, 1957 stated “”If the House of the People and the different State Legislative Assemblies were all allowed to complete their respective terms in full, the General elections to reconstitute them would have had to be held at different points of time. Therefore, in pursuant to the same 7 state assemblies were dissolved earlier. Another major criticism remains the fear of local, regional issues being overshadowed by national issue in situation of simultaneous elections giving undue advantage to national parties over regional parties. Though, the counter for the same is available at many instances where citizens have voted for two different parties for centre and state on the same day. For e.g. in the 2019 general elections when the polls for Odisha legislative assembly were also being conducted 1simultaneously, the Biju Janta Dal (BJD) swept the assembly polls with 44.71% votes while Bhartiya i
Janta Party (BJP) remained a formidable force in the Lok Sabha winning 8 seats and improving its vote share to 38.4% from 32.49% in the state assembly. Meaning almost 6 percentage points more people voted for BJP in the Lok Sabha than in the assembly during the same time period. It demonstrates voters have the political acumen to distinguish the issues for state and central level even while voting at the same time. After working for 191 days after its constitution the high-level committee in its report has stated that “Committee is of the unanimous opinion that there should be simultaneous elections in the country”. The committee consulted various stakeholders including different political parties, out of the 62 political parties consulted 15 did not responded among 47 which responded 32 have favoured the idea of simultaneous elections while 15 have opposed it. But the catch here remains that out of the 6 national parties only 2 i.e. Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) and National People’s Party (NPP) have favoured the idea and other 4 namely Indian National Congress (INC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) have opposed it. Other pragmatic challenges are in the form of managing resources and logistics for conducting elections simultaneously across the country of 1.4 billion people with 96.8 crores registered voters in last 2024 general elections.
Assembly Election Odisha 2019 | Election Commission of India
CONCLUSION
The international benchmark standards for “simultaneous elections” are available in the form of Sweden, Belgium, Germany, Indonesia and many other countries. While the idea of “one nation one election” is desirable to keep the stability, increase the economic growth and expedite the developmental work the same should be balanced with the federal strength, autonomy of states to protect the true spirit of the world’s largest democracy. A middle ground should be formed among the political parties, concerned stakeholders and above all the citizens, who will ultimately cast their votes. The concerns and voices of local government and stake holders also needs to be given adequate attention to protect the federal structure in the true sense while balancing it with rapid development and economic growth. As Mahatma Gandhi said “The independence of India should mean the independence of the whole of India…Independence must begin at the bottom.” Thus, the interest of local bodies also needs to be taken care of along with the house of people and respective state assemblies to protect the spirit of 73rd and 74th constitutional amendment and the federal and democratic structure of the country.
Assembly Election Odisha 2019 | Election Commission of India