Why do we need to synchronise Indian elections?

Improve Efficiency in Governance

Continuous elections ensures the government of the day is in a perennial ‘election mode’. The Niti Aayog estimates governance and developmental activities remained largely suspended for a total of seven months in 2014, ie: three months across the country and about two months in Jharkhand & J&K and another two months in Maharashtra and Haryana. As per the Niti Aayog’s analysis, it would be reasonable to expect the Model Code of Conduct to be in play for about four months every year.

 Reduce Time Taken and Cost of Elections

The expenditure incurred on the Lok Sabha elections is incurred by the Government of India, while State governments bear the expense of conducting elections to their Legislative Assemblies.

Holding synchronised elections would mean a shared expense which is likely to reduce the burden on both the Centre and States’ coffers.

Better Utilisation of Administrative and Security Apparatus

Conducting elections is a mammoth, complex, time-consuming exercise. During the 2014 General Elections, 10 million polling officials were assigned to 9,30,000 polling stations across the country.

As for security, the Election Commission had deployed 1349 Companies of the Central Armed Police Force (CAPF). While polling officials are required to be on duty only on the day the constituency votes, the deployment of security officials begins before and ends much after voting has concluded. This leads to a lock in of the CAPF personnel for prolonged periods.

When it was started?

If you think that the idea of One Nation One Election is new for India then you are wrong because One Nation One Election is not a unique experiment in our country. Simultaneous elections have been conducted for the LokSabha and the state assemblies simultaneously in India in 1952, 1957, 1962 and 1967.

This practice was discontinued in 1968-69, because some Legislative Assemblies were dissolved earlier due to various reasons. Since then India is trying hard to adopt the old election system but there is no consensus among the political parties.

Where challenges can arrive?

The term of the LokSabha and that of the State Legislative Assemblies needs to be synchronized so that the election to both can be held within a given span of time.

 For instance, the term of the present LokSabha will go upto 2024, but elections to some of the legislative assembly had already taken place last year (for e.g. Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan) and some are due this year (for e.g. Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand), resulting in different dates of completion of the term.

To sync the term of the State Legislative Assemblies with that of the LokSabha, the term of the state legislative assemblies can be reduced and increased accordingly and for the same, constitutional amendment would be needed

 Constitutional Amendments needed for simultaneous Elections

To sync the term of the State Legislative Assemblies with that of the LokSabha, the term of the state legislative assemblies can be reduced and increased accordingly and for the same, constitutional amendment would be needed in:Article 83: It states that the term of the LokSabha will be five years from the date of its first sitting.

Article 85: It empowers the President to dissolve the LokSabha.

Article 172: It states that the term of the legislative assembly will be five years from the date of its first sitting.

Article 174: It empowers the Governor of the state to dissolve the Legislative Assembly.

Article 356: It authorizes the Central Government to impose President’s Rule for failure of constitutional machinery in the state.

 The Representation of the People Act as well as related parliamentary procedure will also need to be amended.

Who made the first political move?

In August 2003, deputy Prime Minister LK Advani announced that the government was holding consultations with the Election Commission and National Democratic Alliance partners on holding simultaneous polls. At the time a senior Congress leader, Pranab Mukherjee did not outright reject the idea and was quoted as saying, “Every year there is one election or the other, which prevents the government from taking hard decisions.” The Left parties, however, were against calibrating EC’s calendar to hold simultaneous elections.

“The idea of clubbing the Lok Sabha elections with the Assembly polls gathered momentum in the wake of the BJP’s internal assessment of the party’s electoral prospects in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram. In at least four out of these five Congress-ruled states, the BJP’s prospects of wresting power from the Congress appeared to be bleak, the internal assessment said

How feasible is the Idea?

The biggest logic in the favor of the simultaneous election is the saving of government money. If the country goes for One Nation One Election it will saving of huge Government money.

• A logistical challenge for the EC would be procuring EVMs, two to three times more than their present number.
• An alternate mechanism of state funding of political parties may cap the expenditure and curb illicit means of financing the campaign.
• Widening linkage between Lok Sabha and assembly polls has an adverse impact on overall governance as well.
• Continuity in policies and programmes.
• Efficiency of Governance: Populist measures by governments will reduce.
• The impact of black money on the voters will be reduced as all elections are held at a time.

Elections in the Republic of India include elections for
• Members of the Parliament in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,
• Members of State Legislative Assemblies, (and also Assembly elections to some of the Union Territories like Delhi),
• Members of State Legislative Councils,
• Members in village panchayats or city corporation councils.
• By-election is held when a person of a particular constituent dies, resigns, or is disqualified.

These elections can be held in a single day saving time and money