The Union Cabinet has cleared a Bill for enabling One Nation One Election in India, according to latest reports. For the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government, the 'One Nation, One Election' program is a top priority and reports earlier this year had indicated that it will move on it in its current tenure. In Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address this year, he had made a strong pitch for simultaneous polls, contending that frequent polls were creating hurdles to the country's progress.

'One nation, one election' or simultaneous polls was a key promise made by the BJP during its campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. The government has also said that it has begun preparations for the delayed census exercise.

Currently, general, state and local body polls are out of sync, following timelines dictated by the terms of each individual elected body.

The idea of ONOE has been floated frequently in public gatherings and election rallies since 2014. In September last year, an eight-member committee was set up,  headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, to examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state Assemblies, municipalities and panchayats, keeping in view the existing constitutional framework.

Other members included Home Minister Amit Shah, former Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission Chairman NK Singh, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap and senior advocate Harish Salve. Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal was a special invitee to the panel.

In March this year, the panel submitted its report on ONOE to President Droupadi Murmu and recommended that simultaneous elections for the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies be held as the first step, followed by synchronised local body polls within the next 100 days. The panel stated that the "loss of simultaneity in elections after the first two decades of India’s independence has had a baneful effect on the economy, polity and society."

Separately, the Law Commission is likely to recommend holding simultaneous polls for all three tiers of government — Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies like municipalities and panchayats — starting with 2029 and a provision for a unity government in cases like a hung house or no-confidence motion.

Click here to read all stories from Outlook's 1 October 2023 issue 'One Nation, One Election/One Nation, Many People'

Threat to state powers?

BJP’s push for ONOE has received criticism from the Opposition and sections of society who think it will alter the functional value of Indian federalism. Its implementation will require more than a dozen Constitutional amendments, most of which will not need ratification by the state assemblies.

For instance, the power to dissolve a state Assembly, according to Article 174, rests with the Governor who acts after he receives a request from the Chief Minister. However, experts argue that with simultaneous polls, Assemblies will also have a fixed term and this could curtail the autonomy of states. 

“In a parliamentary set-up, Chief Ministers have the power to dissolve an Assembly. If the states lose this provision, the prerogative of dissolving an Assembly will go to the PM, which will violate the basic principle of federalism,” said Balveer Arora, the author of India’s Beleaguered Federalism: The Pluralist Challenge, in an earlier report in Outlook.

In addition to this, simultaneous elections could also create lack of accountability of politicians once an election is over as frequent elections force them to remain visible to the public; it could influence voter behaviour, including a predisposition towards casting votes for the same political party at the national and state levels. This would especially be disadvantageous to regional parties.

However, the government has given four reasons for implementing ONOE – cost saving, reducing the burden on the administrative set-up and security forces, undeterred implementation of government policies, and ensuring more developmental work by administrative machinery rather than focusing on continuous electioneering. 

This is not the first time that the idea of ONOE has been floated. In 1999, the Law Commission, led by B P Jeevan Reddy, had recommended simultaneous elections. In 2015, a parliamentary standing committee reintroduced the recommendations and in 2016, PM Modi voiced his support for the idea. On August 30, 2018, the Law Commission, chaired by Justice B S Chauhan, released the draft report recommending simultaneous elections.