'One Nation, One Election' : Union Cabinet Accepts Recommendations Of High-Level Committee On Simultaneous Elections
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has accepted the recommendations made by the High Level Committee on holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies and local bodies (Panchayats and Municipalities).
In March, the High Level Committee under the Chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind submitted its report on "one nation, one election," advocating for simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha, State Legislative Assemblies, and local bodies. The Committee was constituted in September last year.
Other members of the committee included Home Minister Amit Shah, former Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission chairperson NK Singh, former Lok Sabha secretary-general Subhash C Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve, and former Chief Vigilance Commissioner Sanjay Kothari.
In its report, the committee recommended holding simultaneous elections, citing the burden on various stakeholders such as the Government, businesses, workers, Courts, political parties, candidates, and civil society. To manage the complexities, the committee suggested two steps. Firstly, it recommended holding simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies. Secondly, it proposed synchronizing the elections for Municipalities and Panchayats with those of the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies, ensuring that the former are conducted within a hundred days of the latter.
How Lok Sabha and Assembly elections are proposed to be synchronised?
The Committee has proposed the insertion of Article 82A to the Constitution to synchronise the terms of the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
All the State Assemblies which are constituted in general elections held after this Article is brought into effect ("Appointed Date") will come to end along with the expiry of the full term of the Lok Sabha. For example, if the Article is given effect to in June 2024, all the State Assemblies which are formed after this notification will have a term only till 2029. So, if a State election is held in 2027, the Assembly's term will end in 2029 along with the Lok Sabha.
To ease the process, an Implementation Group has been recommended to look into the execution of Committee's recommendations.
Imperatively, as per Article 82A (4), if the Election Commission opines that the elections to any Legislative Assembly cannot be conducted at the time of the General Election, it may recommend to the President to declare by an Order that the election to that Legislative Assembly may be conducted at a later date.
What if there is hung house or a no-confidence motion?
Further, in the event of a hung house and a no-confidence motion, fresh elections may take place. Notably, the tenure will only be for the unexpired term in such cases. In other words, it will be the remainder of the full term, ie. for five years. Further, the expiration of this period shall operate as a dissolution of the House.
For example, if a government falls in a no-confidence motion in the second year of the house, then fresh elections can be held. However, the new government will only have the remainder term of three years. Amendments are proposed to Articles 83 and 172 in this regard.
Other proposed amendments include the introduction of Article 324A to hold simultaneous elections for local bodies.