 "Ram Nath Kovind-led panel recommends 2-step approach, single electoral roll")
The high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday submitted to President Droupadi Murmu its report on One Nation, One Poll (ONOP) which recommends a two-step approach for holding simultaneous elections for the three tiers of the government – the Lok Sabha (LS), legislative assemblies, and local bodies.
The 18,626-page report also recommends a single electoral roll and a single photo identity card of electors.
It envisaged a two-step process, where the first step should be to simultaneously hold elections to the LS and legislative assemblies. In the second step, panchayat and municipal elections should be synchronised in such a way that they are conducted within hundred days of the elections to the LS and legislative assemblies.
The committee has suggested that the government must develop a legally tenable mechanism, advising two sets of constitutional amendments, a total of 18, to achieve the objective. The panel has not specified a time frame for rolling out its recommendations, but if the amendments are brought about in the next Lok Sabha, simultaneous polls could become a reality by the 2029 LS polls.
In its report, the committee advised that an ‘Implementation Group’ should be set up to look into the execution of its recommendations. It concluded that periods of synchronised elections contributed to relatively higher economic growth, lower inflation, higher public spending and investments, and improved quality of expenditure as compared to those that were not synchronised.
“Overall, for India to transition into an advanced economy (‘Viksit Bharat by 2047), political economy and electoral cycles will be crucial, like any other country,” the report said. The paper contended that synchronised polls could add approximately 1.5 percentage points in real national growth.
More From This Section
The report recommended that the Constitution need to be amended to introduce phrases like “full term”, “unexpired term” and “mid-term”.
It urged the Election Commission and the state electoral bodies to make a detailed plan for the men and material required for conducting simultaneous polls, including EVMs and security personnel. The report noted that holding simultaneous polls would reduce voter fatigue and increase voter turnout.
It, however, clarified that ONOP will not be held on a single day since that was difficult in a large and diverse country, but be held in phases.
It pointed out that in 1957 seven legislative assemblies of Bihar, Bombay, West Bengal, Mysore, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Madras were dissolved before their terms so their respective elections could be held with the Lok Sabha polls.
The committee looked at several countries where simultaneous polls are held. Committee member Subhash C Kashyap supported the German model of a constructive vote of no-confidence, where the German parliament can propose a resolution to remove the government only if it names a successor.
However, the committee felt that India should develop a model of its own considering the mammoth size and diversity of the country.
According to the report, 47 political parties sent their feedback, of which 32 supported ‘simultaneous polls’ and 15 opposed. Of the six ‘national parties’, four (Congress, CPI (M), Bahujan Samaj Party and Aam Aadmi Party) opposed ONOP, while the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and National People’s Party favoured it.
The BJP argued that the enforcement of the model code of conduct led to a “significant loss of up to 800 days” in five years.
All former Supreme Court chief justices – Justices Dipak Misra, Ranjan Gogoi, SA Bobde, and UU Lalit - in their written responses favoured simultaneous polls. Of the former chief justices of High Courts, nine supported, while three flagged concerns. Four former chief election commissioners supported ONOP.
Six states are due to have elections this year. Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha are likely to go to polls with the LS elections, followed by Haryana, Maharashtra and Jharkhand. In 2025, Bihar and Delhi will have elections. In 2026, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala and Puducherry will go to polls, followed by Manipur, Goa, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat in 2027. Finally, in 2028, the remaining 10 states will conduct assembly elections. These are Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Karnataka, Telangana, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, a member of the committee, termed the report a “historic day for the country’s democratic system”.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “The PM’s objective is clear. He is going around asking for a two-thirds majority, 400 seats, and the cat is out of the bag. They want to completely dismantle B R Ambedkar’s Constitution and with what objective – ‘one nation, no election’, that is what they want.”