Bhopal. Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who aspires to make his tenure better than the 17-year tenure of India’s first Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, has decided to adopt Jawaharlal’s 6-decade-old strategy of one country one election. The two general elections after independence were based on this policy of Nehru ji, which were successfully completed, which increased Nehru’s fame. Now Narendra Modi’s government has also decided to adopt this policy and after the constitutional formalities of implementing it, it will be implemented after 5 years i.e. at the time of elections in 2029.
Under this policy, elections to the Parliament (Lok Sabha) and all the Legislative Assemblies of the country will be held simultaneously and elections to all the local bodies of the country will be held 100 days after the elections to the Parliament and Legislative Assemblies. With this announcement, the government has claimed that this effort will not only reduce the expenditure of billions of rupees on elections in the country but will also save time and then the government and local institutions will be able to work in public interest without any kind of obstruction or hindrance.
By the way, this thinking of Modi ji is not new. In the first four general elections after independence in India, from 1951.52 to 57, 1962 to 67 and 1971, the voters of the country voted for the assemblies of their states along with the Lok Sabha elections. Later, after the formation of new states and the reorganization of some states, this process stopped. In 1968, the assemblies of some states were dissolved, due to which the process of assembly elections could not be completed along with the Lok Sabha elections. In 1983, the Election Commission in its annual report suggested to restart the system of holding assembly elections along with the Lok Sabha elections. In 1999, the Law Commission report also mentioned ‘one country one election’. In 2018, the Law Commission again supported ‘one country one election’. Later, the Modi government constituted a committee under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind to give its recommendations after detailed consideration on this issue.
Which submitted its report to the President in the month of March last year and after deliberations on its recommendations for about 6 months, the Modi government accepted it and decided to hold elections of Parliament and Legislative Assemblies simultaneously across the country and announced to hold elections of local bodies across the country 100 days after these elections. The government did make this important announcement but according to the Constitution, the government cannot implement this decision without making amendments in the Constitution related to it. Therefore, the government has now decided to implement it by getting the relevant Constitutional amendments done in the next winter session of Parliament. But for this, unanimity of all the political parties of the country will be necessary. Currently, there are 62 political parties in the country, out of which 13 have not approved this proposal and 13 have maintained silence on it. The remaining 32 political parties have agreed to this proposal of the Center. The government is trying to convince the angry parties before the winter session and get it approved unanimously by the Parliament. Efforts are going on in this direction.
However, the main opposition party Congress has started opposing this proposal of the government considering it against the Indian Constitution. Some other opposition parties also believe the same. Therefore, in the current situation, it seems difficult for the proposal to be passed by the General Committee. But there is still some time left in the winter session. During this time, if the government convinces the opposition, then the process of constitutional amendment can be completed in the winter session and it can be legally implemented from the next general election in 2029. However, at present its final destination is far away.