The ministry of law and justice on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that simultaneous elections to the Parliament and legislative assemblies would result in “huge saving to the public exchequer”.
The ministry of law and justice on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that simultaneous elections to the Parliament and legislative assemblies would result in “huge saving to the public exchequer, avoidance of replication of effort on part of administrative and law and order machinery in holding repeated elections and bring considerable savings to political parties and candidates in their election campaigns”.
In response to an unstarred question tabled in the Upper House, filed by Bharatiya Janata Partry MP Harnath Singh Yadav, minister for law and justice Kiren Rijiju said that “general elections to the House of People (Lok Sabha) and all State Legislative Assemblies were held simultaneously in 1951-52, 1957, 1962 and 1967”. “However, due to the premature dissolution of some Legislative Assemblies in 1968 and 1969, the cycle got disrupted,” he said.
The minister added that the need for simultaneous election to Lok Sabha and Legislative Assemblies has been felt as “elections have become big budget affair and expensive”. “The Law Commission of India in its 170th Report on Reform on Electoral Laws has suggested simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies for the sake of stability in governance. Simultaneous elections would result in huge saving to the public exchequer, avoidance of replication of effort on part of administrative and law and order machinery in holding repeated elections and bring considerable savings to political parties and candidates in their election campaigns,” he said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders of the BJP too have pitched for simultaneous polls. On National Voters’ Day on January 25, Modi said the continuous cycle of elections result in politics being seen in everything while development works suffer.
In his response, Rijiju said that simultaneous polls would also “curb the adverse effect/schemes due to prolonged enforcement of Model Code of Conduct for the asynchronous Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections (including bye-election)”.
The election commission has maintained that it can hold the polls together. “It is up to legislatures to take a final decision on the issue,” said chief election commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar at a press conference in November. He added that subject of holding parliamentary and state assembly polls at the same time does not fall in the ambit of the EC. “This (simultaneous elections) definitely involves a whole lot of logistics, a whole lot of disruption, but this is something legislatures have to decide,” he said when asked about the EC’s view on the much-talked idea of ‘one nation, one election’.”
The proposal have been criticised by opposition parties and civil rights activists, stating that it would provide an unfair advantage to the ruling party.
Congress spokespersonAbhishek Manu Singhvi said: “Theoretically, its sounds desirable but in a true parliamentary democratic system, it would be virtually impossible to ensure it. The governments run and fall because of democratic pressures, induced defections, changes of loyalties and myriad other reasons. How can the legislative mandate ensure that mid term elections be not held post the government falling and be held only at predetermined times. I would welcome an attempt to informally synchronise elections in practise but an invariable legislative or constitutional mandate would be undemocratic and denial of people’s rights to choose.”
Jagdeep Chhokar, co-founder of Association Democratic Reforms, said the idea of simultaneous polls has come up for time to time. “This is one of perpetuating the power of the ruling party’s dominance,” he said. “Anytime there is a strong government, they think of doing this. At other times, when they want to change the topic of discussion, they bring it up. It’s not constitutionally possible for this to happen.”