Unitary Elections in India

India is the largest democracy in the world. And the soul of the democracy lies in the free and
fair election without manipulation and rigged but on the other hand frequent election
consumes lots of time and resources of the country. One nation One Tax i.e. Goods and
Service Tax likewise the notion One Nation One Election (Unitary Election) gained
momentum when recently our Prime Minister Narendra Modi coined this term and it’s backed
by former President of India Pranab Mukherjee and current President Ram Nath Kovind. The
recent pitch for Unitary Election has been raised by law commission of India. In India the
election has been regulated by the Election Commission of India headed by Chief Election
commissioner who is appointed by President of India for a term of 6 years. India isn't new to
the idea of Unitary election it carried out simultaneous election for Lok sabha and state
assemblies for three subsequent election. In the year 1957, 1962, 1967 except the first general
election held in 1951 all these year election were held simultaneously. The practice of Unitary
election stopped after 1967 because of premature dissolution of:

 Haryana Legislative Assembly in 1968,

 Bihar and West Bengal Legislative Assemblies in 1969, and
 Lok Sabha in 1970.

In one of the interview Hon’ble prime ministeri “Electoral reforms are necessary if the
country has to be rid of black money. It is one of the areas for electoral reforms. I believe the
Prime Minister cannot take a decision on this, nor should he do that. There should be a broad
discussion” Implementation of unitary election is an herculean task as it requires
constitutional amendments. The constitution makers have given authority to parliamentarians
to amend constitution when in need but the process being so cumbersome and unwieldy that
idea of amending constitution seems travesty. The articles that need to be amended to
implement this policy are :

Article 83ii : This article provides the duration of both Upper house (Rajya sabha) and lower
house (Lok sabha) . It speaks that the lok sabha (House of people) shall continue to function
unless get dissolved.

Article 172 : It says that the state legislature shall continue to function for a period of 5 years
unless dissolved earlies.
Article 85 : This article empowers the president of India to dissolve lok sabha ( House Of
People) by a proclamation and a prior notice to speaker of loka sabha may dissolved such
house.

Article 174 and Article 356 : This article empower the governor of state to dissolved state
legislative assembly. If he find fit to dissolve state assembly then he may be by a
proclamation and a notice to speaker to dissolve such house.

In case of S.R. Bommai v Union of Indiaiii the apex court laid down the guidelines to follow
while establishing the president rule in the state.

Article 75: This article spells out that the council of minister shall be collective responsible
to the house of people. They will remain in power as long as they enjoy the confidence of
parliament.

Article 164: This article spells out that the council of minister shall be collective responsible
to the legislative assembly of state. They will remain in power as long as they enjoy the
confidence of assembly.

Article 324: This article empowers the election commission to direct , control and supervise
the election of Lok sabha and state legislative assembly.

Ten Schedule: This schedule speaks and deals with anti defection law which says that a
member cannot disobeys or take different stand from party whip voting. It also says that if a
member voluntarily gives up party membership he/she shall be disqualified.

Pros and Cons of One Nation One Election-

Government implement any policy by analysing it impact on general public and to analyse
that we will have to study pros and cons of policy.

Pros: Each coin has two side good and bad. First we will see the advantage of this policy I,e
the pros-

 Conducting unitary election will not only help in saving large chunk of money but
also can save lot of manpower invested in it and eliminate duplication of name in list,
which removes the doubt of any error.
 Making a common electoral for all tier i,e center, state and panchayats enables
election commission to focus on problem like evm hijacking, malpractices that
prevails during election .
  According to data collected by the governmentiv expenditure in election rose by leaps
and bounds by every passing year, with simultaneous election the cost incur in
election will be reduce.
 Government of India incurs expenses of lok sabha election and also contribute in
state level election, with unitary election the expense incurred by central and state
government will be on 50:50 basis.
 Back to back election results in rise in expenditure by the political parties so as to
campaign for election. One nation one election policy will help in reduction of
expenditure and saves time so that political leaders can focus on developmental
activities and not on campaigning.
 In recent Karnataka election Hon’ble PM Modi addressed 21 rallies in 19 of 30
Karnataka districts. This shift their mode from developmental activities to election
campaigning.
 When elections are held government deploy security forces to ensure safety of voters.
Single election will lead to deployment once in five years, so they will be more
watchful at the borders.
 Election commission impose Model Code of Conduct when election are held in state.
It is generally guidelines which tells the do’s and don’ts to political parties. Person
who contesting election has to be strictly abide during the process of election. It
restrict the party who is in power to take bold decision in welfare of public.

Cons: Unitary election which overhauls whole election process has certain negative impacts
on people of India and economy-

 To implement this policy government need to do constitutional amendments which in

itself a very tedious task and a long procedure. Recently GST has been implemented
by government it take almost 17 years for government to pass GST bill from both
houses and amend constitution.
 All the government at different level are democratically elected if the idea of unitary
election is implemented some elected government at state or local bodies will either
has to resign or be dismissed by the centre government which will lead to imposition
of presidential rule. This will violate the guideline given by supreme court in S.R.
Bommai v Union of India.
 To conduct both state and centre election simultaneously will require large no. of
personnel to be deployed which will eventually lead to fewer soldiers at border. This
ultimately endangered the national security for the time period.
 The party at a centre will have an edge over regional or local parties state like Uttar
Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh , Bihar etc. where the voice of regional party is not so
strong will get marginalized due to popular consensus for party at centre.
 Series of election make politician to face public. Single election will make them lazy
for whole term and hyperactive during the election year.
 What if there is a Hung assembly?
 What if ruling party at the centre loses power in the middle of the term?
  What if a Member of Parliament or assembly dies or gets disqualified in mid-
term because of anti-defection or anti-corruption law?

Conclusion-
Unitary election is a much awaited policy which will overhaul the whole electoral process
in India. Unitary election is desirable but can it be a feasible, election commission suggested
“One year One Election” as an alternative to “One nation One Election”. If the government
along with election commission able to eliminate all the constraints and hindrances coming
in a way of this policy then the policy can do wonders for the economy and the people of
India.

i
Source: http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ians/electoral-reforms-necessary-to-curb-blackmoney-
modi-116062701266_1.html
ii
Article 83(2) states that “The House of the People, unless sooner dissolved, shall continue for five years from
the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer and the expiration of the said period of five years shall
operate as a dissolution of the House…”
iii
AIR 1994 SC 1918.
iv
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