Amid reports of speculation on the implementation of the simultaneous polls or One Nation One Election provision for the upcoming 2024 Lok Sabha Elections, Law Commission officials have informed that the agency is working on a formula to synchronize all assembly polls by extending or reducing the tenure so that all state elections can be held along with the Lok Sabha polls 2029 onwards.
According to a report by news agency ANI citing people familiar with the development, the law commission aims to synchronize and thereby implement the one nation one election provision for India’s election process by 2029 Lok Sabha Elections.
Notably, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led India Government has already set up a high-level panel to explore simultaneous polls for Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies.
The report said that the Law Commission may also be asked to include the third tier of elections along with its current mandate for national and state-level polls.
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The law panel is devising a mechanism to ensure a common electoral roll for Lok Sabha, assemblies and local bodies to reduce cost and use of manpower for undertaking an almost identical exercise which is carried out now by the Election Commission and various state election commissions.
For synchronizing various assembly polls to ensure both state and Lok Sabha elections are held together from 2029 onwards, the Commission under Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi may suggest reducing or enhancing the tenure of legislative assemblies.
A mechanism is being devised to ensure that once Lok Sabha and assembly polls are synchronized, voters go to the polling booth only once to cast their ballot for both the elections.
They said since assembly and parliamentary polls are held in phases, the Commission is working out modalities to see that voters do not go to polling stations more than once to cast their ballot for the two polls.
As of now the mandate of the Commission is to suggest ways to hold assembly and Lok Sabha polls together. But the high-level committee under former president Ram Nath Kovind has been tasked with recommending how Lok Sabha, assembly and local body polls (panchayat, municipalities, zila parishad) can be held together.
One suggestion the law panel can make is to hold the three-tier polls in two phases in one year. In the first phase, Lok Sabha and assembly polls can be held and in the second phase, local body polls can be organised.
In August 2018, the previous Law Commission had endorsed the Modi government‘s proposal to hold simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies, saying it will prevent the country from being in constant election mode, but it had sought further public discourse on the issue before arriving at a final decision.
The panel in its draft report had also said the exercise cannot be held in the present constitutional framework, and suggested changes required to carry out the two sets of polls together.
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Updated: 29 Sep 2023, 05:56 PM IST