You are on page 1of 3

Simultaneous Elections in India

A lot of time, effort and money are channeled towards election campaigns rather than social welfare
work and people-oriented programmes which can be done in their place. Therefore, to invest more in
the latter case, our Prime Minister has always rooted for simultaneous elections to panchayats, urban
local bodies, states, and Parliament. It is a vital area of concern for the current government because
they pledged in their 2014 Election Manifesto that if they came into power, they would devise a way to
hold Lok Sabha and Assembly elections simultaneously.

Historical Background
1951-52 is a period that goes down in history as the time when the country held its first general
election. Simultaneous General Election was held to House of People (Lok Sabha) and all State
Legislative Assemblies. This way of conducting it continued in three subsequent General Elections held
in the years- 1957, 1962 and 1967. But in the years 1968 and 1969, the simultaneous cycle broke
because of the premature dissolution of some Legislative Assemblies. 1970 also had the Lok Sabha
getting dissolved prematurely.

Timeline of Events
In 1999, the Law Commission gave its views on conducting simultaneous elections in Lok Sabha
and Assembly.

For Best Online IAS Coaching, visit: www.prepze.com


In August 2012, LK Advani floated the idea of holding simultaneous votes and claimed that he
had discussed both PM Manmohan Singh and President Pranab Mukherjee and both had a
favorable opinion of the concept.
In 2015, the Standing committee on law gave an account on simultaneous elections. It
highlighted how this would cut down the expenses involved in conducting elections, stop policy
paralysis caused by the imposition of model code of conduct during frequent polls.
In March 2016, there were specific changes made to the idea and a discussion was held at the
all-party meeting. The Modi government in September 2016, made the issue public and
subjected it to public opinion by inviting their comments and viewpoints on MyGov portal.
On October 4, 2017, the election commission declared that it would only be after September
2018 that it would be ready to initiate simultaneous elections.

Arguments in Support
Following arguments support the idea of simultaneous elections:

Frequently held elections hurt the governance because when the model code of conduct in the
poll is imposed, it limits the development activities of the area subjected to elections and affects
the bureaucracys work.
Elections in India involve all kinds of pomp and show and hence, require a big piggy bank to fund
them. This unnecessary expenditure can be reduced by conducting simultaneous elections.
Even 170th report regarding Reform of Electoral Laws (1999) of Law Commission advised about
conducting simultaneous elections at every level, to let stability in governance remain
unscathed.
Frequent elections are also a nuisance to the everyday and healthy public life and disrupt the
functioning of essential services. Political rallies cause severe road traffic and also lead to noise
pollution.
Crucial workforce also gets side-tracked from doing what it's supposed to do and instead ends
up being deployed on election duties for a prolonged period. If simultaneous elections are held,
then this workforce would be available for other essential tasks. For instance, the 2014 Lok
Sabha polls conducted along with four state assemblies witnessed the deployment of 1077 in
situ companies and 1349 mobile companies of Central Armed Police Force (CAPF).

Difficulties
Difficulties involved with the idea are:
Lack of educated voters and their dilemma over who to vote for often leaves them confused and
perplexed whether to vote for candidates contesting assembly or parliament elections.
Frequent elections have had some plus points like bringing the politicians into contact with the
voters, creating temporary jobs and help clearing out any confusion related to local and national
issues in the minds of the voters.

For Best Online IAS Coaching, visit: www.prepze.com


While planning simultaneous elections, matters like logistics and requirement of security
personnel, election, and administrative officials need to be considered. There is a severe scarcity
of necessary security and regulatory officials to conduct simultaneous free and fair elections
throughout the country in one go.
Recently, West Bengal conducted its elections in 6 phases mainly due to the security issues, and
if this kind of situations arises, holding simultaneous polls for all the states may then be carried
out in numerous phases taking months to complete.

Recommendations of the standing committee


The Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, mentioned in its report on
Feasibility of Holding Simultaneous Elections to the House of People (LokSabha) and State Legislative
Assemblies, that a consensual way should be devised to hold simultaneous elections in minimum
number of phases so as to relieve people and the government of the fancy electoral procedures. It also
suggested a cycle of elections, which can be used to serve as a blueprint for carrying out elections of
some legislative assemblies with the term ranging between six months to one year before or after the
election date could be held during the midterm of Lok Sabha (November 2016). For the remaining
states, their elections could be held along with the 2019 General elections to Lok Sabha.

Countries in which simultaneous elections are held


South Africa holds its national as well as provincial legislature elections simultaneously for five years,
and their municipal elections after two years. Similarly, in Sweden, simultaneous elections to the
national legislature (Riksdag), provincial legislature/county council (landsting) and local
bodies/municipal Assemblies (Kommunfullmaktige) are conducted on a fixed date, i.e., second Sunday in
September for four years.

For Best Online IAS Coaching, visit: www.prepze.com

You might also like