New Delhi: The government has opened a discussion on conducting simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies on MyGov, its citizen interface website. Users can submit comments on the proposal till 15 October.
Citizens can submit their opinion by either writing in the comment box, or by attaching a PDF document, or through a YouTube video.
There have been several demands in the recent past to conduct these elections simultaneously, with even President Pranab Mukherjee weighing in on the issue.
“With some election or the other throughout the year, normal activities of the government come to a standstill because of code of conduct,” Mukherjee said on Teachers’ Day. “This is an idea the political leadership should think of. If political parties collectively think, we can change it.... The Election Commission can also put in their idea and efforts on holding the polls together and that will be highly beneficial,” he said, responding to a question from students on simultaneous elections at an event in New Delhi.
Simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies were conducted only in 1951-52, 1957, 1962 and 1967. Last year, the parliamentary standing committee on personnel, public grievances, and law and justice had presented its 79th report on ‘Feasibility of holding simultaneous elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha) and State Legislative Assemblies’ .
The next general election to the Lok Sabha is scheduled for 2019. Elections for the Vidhan Sabhas of five states are scheduled for 2017, for 13 states in 2018, for nine states in 2019, for one state in 2020 and the remaining are scheduled for 2021. In case a decision is made to conduct simultaneous elections, several structural changes will need to be made including possible constitutional amendments.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, at a conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts in April, supported the idea saying that otherwise, “things get stalled and a lot of time is spent on elections”. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) manifesto in the 2014 elections also backed the idea.
In June, the Election Commission (EC) of India had told the law ministry that it supports the idea of simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies. The law ministry had sought the EC’s views on the recommendation.
Not everyone is in favour of the idea.
“This is against democracy because trying to force an artificial cycle of elections and restricting the choice for voters, is not correct. Amending the Constitution for goods and services tax(GST) took 16 years, and for conducting simultaneous elections about six amendments to the Constitution are needed; this is not feasible considering the current political scenario of the country,” said Jagdeep Chhokar, founder-member of the New Delhi-based Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR).
Since the launch of MyGov portal in 2014, the government has sought public opinion on ideas for prime minister’s Independence Day speech and the National Book Promotion Policy, among many others.
