One India, One Election

Holding of simultaneous polls- Lok Sabha and assembly- throughout the country has been discussed over the decades and the contentious issue made its way back into the public discourse in 2015 under the BJP government when a parliamentary standing committee decided to look into its feasibility. Since then, several players like the NITI Aayog, Law Commission, Election Commission, etc. have backed the idea — albeit with some caveats. The prime minister Narendra Modi had made the pitch on various occasions which was taken up by BJP ministers. When the government sought the poll body’s views on the issue, the EC told the Centre that simultaneous polls would require five constitutional amendments in Article 83 of the Indian Constitution, which deals with the duration of Houses of Parliament, Article 85, which deals with the dissolution of Lok Sabha by the president, Article 172 which pertains to the duration of state legislatures, Article 174 which relates to dissolution of state assemblies, and Article 356 which deals with the President’s Rule. The argument for holding simultaneous polls was that frequent elections where the Model Code of Conduct comes into force results in suspending all governance and developmental activity. Secondly, frequent elections mean more expenditure which can be reduced if polls are held simultaneously. Thirdly, it has been argued that if elections are held at one go, it would ensure that security forces are not kept engaged in election work throughout the years. Assembly elections in the state of Jammu and Kashmir have been postponed consistently by the Modi government on account of the security situation, lack of enough security personnel, etc. While the elections in the state could have taken place simultaneously with the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, the government itself has not allowed that to happen. Those who question the rationality of simultaneous polls say the reform is a calculated political attempt to change the nature of Indian democracy from a parliamentary to a presidential style- thereby, giving an edge to national parties and marginalising regional and local players. The argument against is corroborated by studies published by the Infrastructure Development Finance Company(IDFC) institute, that “on average, there is a 77 per cent chance that the Indian voter will vote for the same party for both the State and Centre when elections are held simultaneously”. Former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, who was against the proposal expressed some reservation in 2016- “Having to face electorate more than once every 5 year enhances the accountability of politicians and keeps them on their toes.” The argument for holding simultaneous polls has been on curtailing expenditure, interfering with development and deploying security for polls for prolonged periods. These do not at all, addressed the primer need for reform of the electoral system. Simultaneous elections are almost nearly impossible to implement, as it would mean arbitrarily curtailing or extending the term of existing legislatures to bring their election dates in line with the due date for the rest of the country. Such a measure would undermine democracy and federalism. Ironically, while the onus is on reforming the election system, the Election Commission of India(ECI) itself has been under cloud for biasness and that is a very serious issue. Also such a proposal needs to be debated in parliament and the state assemblies and the agenda of ‘One India, One Election’ is not a good reason.