India’s one nation one election proposal happymamay

India, the world’s largest democracy, is almost always in an electoral position.

With 28 states, eight union territories and nearly a billion eligible voters, exit polls are a constant feature of the country’s political landscape.

For many years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party has championed the idea of ​​”one nation, one election” — a proposal to hold state and federal elections simultaneously every five years.

On Tuesday, India’s law minister introduced a bill to implement the system in Parliament, sparking a debate about power dynamics.

Supporters say this approach would reduce campaign costs, ease pressure on administrative resources, and simplify governance.

Former President Ram Nath Kovind, who led a nine-member committee that recommended elections be held at the same time last year, called the project a “game-changer,” citing economists who say it could boost India’s gross domestic product by as much as 1.5%.

However, critics warn that it could erode India’s federal structure, concentrating power at the center and weakening the autonomy of the states.

Democracy in India operates at multiple levels, each with its own electoral cycle.

There are general elections to choose members of parliament, state elections to choose legislators, while rural and urban assemblies hold separate votes for local government. By-elections fill vacancies resulting from the resignation, death or disqualification of representatives.

These elections are held every five years, but at different times. The government now wants to synchronize them.

And in March a plate Led by Kovind, it proposed holding the state and general elections together in its comprehensive 18,626-page report. It also recommended holding local body elections within 100 days.

The committee proposed that if the government lost the election, new elections would be held, but its term would only last until the next concurrent election.

Although this may seem intense, conducting simultaneous opinion polls is nothing new in India. This was the rule from the first elections in 1951 until 1967, when political turmoil and the early dissolution of state assemblies led to sporadic elections.

Efforts to revive the system have been discussed for decades, with proposals from the Election Commission in 1983, the Law Commission in 1999, and Niti Aayog, a government think tank, in 2017.

The biggest argument for holding simultaneous elections is to reduce election costs.

According to the Delhi-based non-profit organisation Center for Media StudiesIndia spent more than 600 billion rupees ($7.07 billion; £5.54 billion) on the 2019 general election, making it the most expensive in the world at the time.

However, critics argue that the same goal – cutting costs – can backfire.

With 900 million eligible voters, ensuring adequate electronic voting machines, security forces, and election officials will require extensive planning and resources.

According to a 2015 parliamentary committee a report According to the Ministry of Law and Justice, India is already spending Rs 45 billion on general and state elections.

The report said that if simultaneous elections were held, a total of Rs 92.84 billion would be needed to purchase new voting machines and the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit (VVPAT), which dispenses a slip of paper bearing the symbol of the party chosen by the voter. These machines will also need to be replaced every 15 years.

Former Chairman of the Election Commission C Qureshi Raised concerns about rising costs. He said it should have been addressed in the Kovind Committee report, especially since reducing election expenses was a major reason behind the proposal.

Implementing simultaneous elections requires formal changes or revisions to specific provisions (or articles) of the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. Some of these changes need to be ratified by at least half of India’s 28 state assemblies.

Although the BJP-led alliance has a simple majority in Parliament, it lacks the two-thirds majority needed to make such amendments.

The Kovind Committee studied models from countries such as South Africa, Sweden and Indonesia and suggested their best practices in India.

In September, the Council of Ministers approved a proposal to hold simultaneous elections and supported two draft laws to advance the system on Thursday.

Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal presented the bills in Parliament.

One of the bills proposes a constitutional amendment to enable joint federal and state elections, while another aims to align assembly elections in Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir with the general election schedule.

The government said it was open to referring draft laws to a parliamentary committee and consulting with political parties to build consensus.

The Kovind Commission contacted all Indian parties for their comments, with 47 parties responding – 32 in favor of holding simultaneous elections, while 15 opposed it.

Most supporters were BJP allies or friendly parties, citing time, cost and resource savings.

The BJP said the Model Code of Conduct had cost India “800 days of governance” in the last five years by delaying welfare schemes.

Prime Minister Modi has supported holding simultaneous elections.

“Repeated elections hinder the progress of the nation,” he said in August. “With elections held every three to six months, every scheme is tied to the ballot box.”

Opposition partiesThe Election Commission, led by the Congress, described the simultaneous elections as “undemocratic” and argued that they undermined the country’s parliamentary system of government. They say such an arrangement would give an unfair advantage to national parties over regional parties.

The parties also recommended enhancing transparency in the financing process as a better solution to address concerns about election costs.

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