Restoration of cycles of simultaneous polls

The recommendations made by the High-Level Committee on Simultaneous Elections, headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, have answered some of the critical constitutional and legal questions that need to be answered to go for simultaneous polls. The committee states in its report that holding simultaneous parliamentary and state assembly polls does not require ratification by the states. This implies that simultaneous parliamentary and assembly polls in 2029 can be a reality without much difficulty if the new government to be formed at the Centre after this year’s Lok Sabha polls pushes for it. The Committee, however, states that constitutional amendments to be moved for synchronization of simultaneous parliamentary and assembly polls with simultaneous polls in municipalities and panchayats will require ratification by the states. Building consensus on the simultaneous polls in all elected bodies—the parliament, state assemblies, and local bodies—may not be easy as long as the central government and the state governments continue to be ruled by different political parties. Such complexities explain the recommendation by the committee to adopt a two-step approach to restore the cycle of simultaneous elections that was lost after the first two decades of India’s independence. The committee has suggested that in the first step, simultaneous polls are to be held for the Lok Sabha and the state assemblies, and in the second step, elections to the municipalities and panchayats are to be synchronised with the Lok Sabha and assemblies in such a way that these elections to local bodies are held within 100 days of holding the general elections to the Lok Sabha and assemblies. Achieving the necessary constitutional amendment for drawing up a common electoral roll for simultaneous Lok Sabha, assembly, and local body polls is not going to be easy, as electoral rolls for municipalities and panchyats are prepared by state election commissions, and hence such amendments will require ratification by the states. Another critical question that surfaced in the course of the consultation process is the loss of the cycle of simultaneous polls due to the huge house of no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha or passage loss of the majority of the incumbent governments in the state assembly and failure to win the trust vote. Execution of the Committee’s recommendation in this regard may lead to reduced or very short tenures of governments in the states, and this may disrupt implementations of schemes and programmes, discontinuation of policies, and disruption in revenue collections. The Committee recommends that in the event of a hung house, a no-confidence motion, or any such event, fresh elections may be held to constitute the new House. In the case of the Lok Sabha, the term of the new House will be only for the unexpired term of the immediately preceding full term, and similarly, when fresh elections are held for state assemblies, such a new House should continue, unless dissolved earlier, up to the end of the full term of the Lok Sabha. The committee stated in its report that a constitutional amendment bill will have to be tabled in parliament for the necessary amendment to Article 83 on the duration of Lok Sabha and Article 172 on the duration of state legislatures, and such constitutional amendment will not require ratification by the States. India being a multi-party democracy, political instability in states is not uncommon, and while pushing for simultaneous polls, the cascading impact of frequent changes of guard in different states even after synchronised Lok Sabha and assembly polls cannot be ignored. The committee justifies the rationality of the recommendations for simultaneous polls by arguing that holding several elections in a single year casts a huge burden on the government, businesses, workers, courts, political parties, candidates, and civil society at large. If political instability in states leads to the holding of fresh elections but the term of a new government is reduced due to synchronisation, then gains from the restoration of cycles of simultaneous polls may be eroded due to uncertainty in policy continuation. Political parties opposing simultaneous polls cite the idea of federalism enshrined in the Constitution being impacted due to either cutting short or lengthening state assemblies for synchronised cycles of elections. While legal and constitutional questions will need to be settled before the country can move ahead with the recommendation of the committee, the Election Commission drawing up a meticulous plan on poll arrangements that includes additional electronic voting machines, polling personnel, and security arrangements will be crucial to understanding the magnitude of logistics hurdles. The application of artificial intelligence can make the task of EC easier. The outcome of the Lok Sabha polls will be a crucial determinant of the chances of implementing the recommendation of the committee for simultaneous polls. The recommendations coming days before the announcement of poll dates are poised to become one of the key poll issues during the run-up to the polls.