The top-level committee that has been long working on the concept of ‘one nation, one election for all’ has sent its report to Rashtrapat is Mrs.Droupadi Murmu urging for a common date for the election of local self-governing bodies across the country. However, under the leadership of the present ex-president, Ram Nath Kovind, the committee has reached a unanimous consent form for conducting simultaneous elections. The committee in the report, which is accessed, has, as a part of its suggestions, made elections to Lok Sabha and state bodies to be arranged together, followed by synchronized local body polls within 100 days.
The panel, in turn, reveals that the implementation of simultaneous elections will be an interesting transformation of the electoral process and governance and that one of its main goals is to create “India, that is Bharat”. For the accomplishment of this task, the committee proposes the preparation of a common electoral roll and voters’ ID card by the Election Commission of India jointly with the
At present, the general election for parliament and state assembly elections are conducted sequentially after the expiration of the incumbent government’s term or when it is dissolved. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has frequently pushed through the proposal of ‘One Nation, One Election’, which was part of the party’s guidelines for the 2014 elections.
The sixteen members of the committee, which the Honorable Ram Nath Kovind chairs, are Home Minister Amit Shah, former leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, former Finance Commission chairman N K Singh, former Lok Sabha Secretary General Subhash Kashyap, and senior advocate Harish Salve.
There were simultaneous elections in India from 1967 to 1967, with several successful elections following this pattern. The centre had carried out this practice under the explanation of underdevelopment in 1968-69 and 1970, but by the middle of 1971, the law of one man, one vote had been accomplished, which signified the end of such practice. Come 1970, the Lok Sabha had to meet the fate of an earlier dissolution, but this one was well before time as mid-term elections waited for the voters in 1971.
