There have been recent debates around the proposed One Nation, One Election bill, officially titled The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment Bill), 2024.
If the bill is passed, voters across the country would be able to cast their votes to elect both levels of government (state and national) on the same day. The Union Territories Laws (Amendment Bill), 2024, would align the elections of the Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Puducherry and NCT of Delhi.
Through this reform, the government hopes to streamline governance, reduce election expenses and minimize disruptions in governance caused by frequent elections. Interestingly, this isn’t a new idea.
Simultaneous elections were held in India up till two decades after independence—from 1952 to 1967. However, due to political instability, the premature dissolution of state assembles and a change in the country’s political fabric, the system of holding elections together was disrupted.
Why simultaneous elections have support: Polls happening simultaneously can lead to a substantial reduction in financial costs. Under the current system, elections happen in some part of India or the other every year. This places a financial and administrative burden on the Election Commission (EC).
The EC must repeatedly deploy resources that include security forces, election officials, polling infrastructure and electronic voting machines (EVMs), leading to a high cost burden. With synchronized elections, these costs can be reduced.
Before every election, the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) is enforced, which restricts the government from announcing new projects, policies or welfare schemes during the election period.
As elections occur throughout the year in different states, the MCC comes into effect frequently, delaying development work and decision-making processes. With the implementation of One Nation, One Election, the MCC would only be implemented once every five years, thus leading to a smoother execution of long-term policies and projects.
Also, with elections happening one after another under the current system, there are chances of it leading to voter fatigue, with voters losing interest in the electoral process.
Under One Nation, One Election, voters will have to cast their votes once every five years for both central and state representatives. This may renew enthusiasm in the election process and result in higher voter participation on the whole.
Structural challenges: The implementation of One Nation, One Election poses significant challenges, as multiple polls taking place across the country would require massive logistical arrangements.
Overseeing polling infrastructure such as EVMs, voter verification systems, security forces and election staff would be a difficult task in practical terms.
The more substantive task, though, would be to make major amendments to the Indian Constitution and electoral laws. Key provisions such as Articles 83, 85, 172 and 356, which govern the terms of the Lok Sabha, state assemblies and the dissolution of governments, would require big revisions.
It is also important to consider what happens if the government at either the Centre or in some state loses its majority support before the House completes its five-year term.
This would disrupt the synchronized election cycle. It would be a challenge to maintain the country’s common poll schedule in situations where the Lok Sabha or a state assembly is dissolved prematurely.
In a diverse country like India, state elections often centre around regional concerns, local leaders and specific developmental priorities. Holding both Lok Sabha and state assembly elections together could shift the voter’s focus from local and regional issues to national ones, which could give an advantage to national parties.
What lies ahead? Law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal had introduced the bills in Parliament. The bills have now been sent to a joint parliamentary committee to get a wider understanding after consulting with various stakeholders.
The Joint Parliamentary Committee is scheduled to meet early next year and is expected to begin consultations with various stakeholders to gather their opinions on One Nation, One Election.
Stakeholders would include members of political parties, former judges, senior advocates, current or former election commissioners, state assembly speakers and potentially also the general public.
After that, the Joint Parliamentary Committee will review and approve the bill’s proposed amendments clause-by-clause. The committee will submit its report to the Lok Sabha speaker, who must then determine when it should be presented to the House.
The proposed One Nation, One Election bill would bring about a major change in India’s electoral system. Therefore, it is important to understand its pros and cons in fine detail before it’s implemented in the country.
The authors are, respectively, a researcher with Lokniti, a research program of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), and a professor at CSDS.
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