One Nation One Election: Assessing The Feasibility Of Simultaneous Polls

When added to the amount spent on state and local elections, the total amount spent per year amounts to tens of thousands of crores. This recurring expenditure can be reduced materially by conducting concurrent polls.

- VIDISHA SHEKHAWAT & DR. ALISHA VERMA

The idea to synchronize elections in India, including the parliamentary arena, state assemblies, and, possibly, local bodies, under One Nation, One Election (ONOE) has been reinvigorated by its proponents citing administrative efficiency and financial discipline. First experimented with in the 1950s but derailed by early dissolutions starting in 1967, the idea has returned to popularity. However, its implementation would require deep deliberation of constitutional, logistic, and social consequences.

LEGAL AND CONSTITUTIONAL OVERHAUL The first and the most significant barrier to implementation is the legal one. Articles 83 and 172 of the Constitution now provide separate five-year terms for the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies respectively. ONOE would require significant changes to at least five articles of the constitution, and changes to the Representation of the People Act, 1951 and other electoral measures. The Law Commission of India in its draft report of 2018 noted that simultaneous elections are desirable, but the current legal framework does not allow such a change without significant structural changes.

Any constitutional amendment, which changes the federal balance, must be ratified by Parliament as well as by half the states. This question presents a political factor: will the states of regional parties support a model that centralizes the electoral calendars and might nationalize the political discourse? In its report of 2023, the High-Level Committee on One Nation, One Election, chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, asserted that broad-based consensus is essential and would have to precede any formal move towards synchronization.