Cabinet nod to 'one nation, one poll' plan

BILLS MAY BE TABLED IN THE ONGOING WINTER SESSION, WILL LIKELY BE EXAMINED BY A JOINT HOUSE COMMITTEE

- Smriti Kak Ramachandran

The Union Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod to two bills aimed at implementing simultaneous state and national polls that are likely to be introduced during the ongoing winter session of Parliament in a bid to usher in sweeping changes in the ways elections are conducted in the world's largest democracy.

The proposal to align elections was a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party's 2024 poll manifesto and has the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but is fiercely opposed by a raft of opposition parties and activists who allege that it will hurt democratic accountability and federalism.

The Cabinet cleared the Constitutional Amendment Bill to conduct elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies together and a second bill to align the polls in the Union Territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu & Kashmir, said people aware of the details. The second bill does not require amending the Constitution.

The bills are likely to be introduced in the ongoing winter session, which concludes on December 20, and will likely be examined by a joint parliamentary committee (JPC), said people aware of details.

The Union government as well as the BJP will carry out extensive outreach to create awareness about the provision of the bills and the implications these will have on the electoral reforms, the people cited above said. As a first step, the bills will focus on synchronising Lok Sabha and assembly elections, as suggested by the Ram Nath Kovind committee, and will take up the process of replicating the process for municipal and panchayat elections in the next phase, one of the people cited above said.

The bill for holding simultaneous polls for all state and UT assemblies along with parliamentary elections can be passed by Parliament without consultation with state governments or ratification by state assemblies, said a person aware of the details.