‘Hold Lok Sabha, Assembly, panchayat polls together’

In its suggestions submitted to the high-level committee for ‘one nation, one election’ on Tuesday, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said that elections to the Lok Sabha (LS), legislative Assemblies, and panchayats should be held simultaneously on the basis of a common electoral roll for all three.

The BJP said implementing ‘one nation, one election’, “an idea whose time has come”, would require amending the provisions of the Constitution of India, the Once election dates are known, all political parties take “short-term and populist decisions, instead of policyoriented decisions,” the BJP said Representation of the People Act, 1951, and the Delimitation Act, 1951. The party expressed hope that the high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind would build consensus on the issue. During their appearance before the committee on Tuesday evening, BJP National President J P Nadda and Union Minister Bhupender Yadav proposed that the Election Commission of India, at least in the first phase, should target synchronising elections to the LS and Assemblies. To hold simultaneous LS and Assembly polls, the BJP suggested a review of constitutional and legal provisions. The party said that elections to civic bodies and panchayats, organised by the state Election Commission, could be conducted with the LS and Vidhan Sabha elections in the second phase. However, the BJP insisted that all elections should be held based on a common electoral roll.

The party said that simultaneous LS, Assembly, and panchayat polls could still be held over several days, as is currently the case, but synchronised to be conducted across the country at one juncture. The BJP argued that the multiplicity of elections leads to the wastage of public money. According to the party, “Once election dates are known, all political parties take short-term and populist decisions” instead of policy-oriented ones.