From Concept To Reality

THE Government of India recently constituted a High Level Committee (HLC)—headed by former President of India, Ram Nath Kovind—to examine the issue of simultaneous elections. This announcement triggered a wide debate in the national discourse.

- How to implement simultaneous elections in India

Supporters of this idea list out several benefits arguing its case. They point out that simultaneous elections will rid India of being in an election mode permanently. This will provide governments and political parties the much-needed space to prioritise structural measures—one which may be politically difficult to take, but may benefit the country in the long-term over populist measures; and, one that may be politically safe, but may, at best, provide short-term symptomatic relief. Simultaneous elections are thus seen as a fundamental reform to transform the quality of governance. Other pros of simultaneous elections include significant savings in public expenditure on recurring elections, reduced deployment of security forces and government officials and reduced disruption to development projects due to frequent imposition of the model code of conduct.

Critics, on the other hand, argue that simultaneous elections may impair the federal structure of India. They state that simultaneous elections can influence voter behaviour in a manner that voters may vote on national issues even for state assemblies or urban/panchayat elections, thus benefitting large national parties and marginalising regional parties. One can be sure that these arguments and debates will continue, perhaps even intensify, in the days to come. However, the dominant focus in this debate still revolves around the “what” and “why” or “why not” of simultaneous elections. Not much is being thought about the “how” of simultaneous elections. If a decision to implement simultaneous elections is taken, then how will the implementation really happen? Will that even be sustainable in the long term?