New Delhi: Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal will introduce the ‘One Nation, One Election’ bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The bill was approved by the federal cabinet recently. The two bills approved by the cabinet on Thursday were a constitutional amendment providing for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all state assemblies, and a bill providing for simultaneous elections to the legislative assemblies of the Union Territory of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu. Simultaneous elections are held in Kashmir.
If approved, parliamentary and Lok Sabha elections will be held simultaneously
If implemented, elections to the Lok Sabha, Parliament and local bodies (urban or rural) would be held in the same year. A high-level committee headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind submitted the report in March ahead of the announcement of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The committee said in its report that holding simultaneous elections could “change the electoral process.” However, opposition parties objected to holding simultaneous elections.
The agenda is included in the BJP’s manifesto
Let me tell you that the Bharatiya Janata Party has insisted on holding simultaneous elections since it came to power in 2014. NITI Aayog had supported the proposal in 2017 and the following year then President Ram Nath Kovind mentioned it in his address to a joint session of Parliament. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reiterated the need to hold simultaneous elections in his 2019 Independence Day speech.
In fact, holding simultaneous elections was included in the party’s 2014 and 2019 election manifestos. The BJP will try to negotiate with other parties to work out a way to hold assembly and Lok Sabha elections simultaneously. In addition to reducing electoral expenses for political parties and governments, this will ensure a degree of stability for state governments.
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