BJP Govt's Webinar on 'One Nation, One Election'; What Does This Mean?

New Delhi: Discussing the centre's favoured concept of simultaneous nationwide elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government recently organised a series of webinars to push the idea of 'One Nation, One Election'. As per reports, the aim of these webinars is to build a national consensus and spread awareness on the importance and need for 'One Nation, One Election'.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has from time to time spoken about the necessity of conducting simultaneous and integrated  Lok Sabha, state and local body polls in the nation. The webinars, a set of 25 in total, are therefore aimed at the Prime minister's envisioning of simultaneous polls and creating consensus from various party leaders and members. Reportedly, the webinars scheduled over the span of a month will be attended by senior leaders, party workers and members of academia and legal fraternity.

National Vice President and Spokesperson of BJP,  Baijayant Panda participated in the webinar of 31st December, where he focused on the benefits of having a system as opined by PM Modi. Hinting at the possibility of 'one nation, one election' in the 2024 elections, he took to his official Twitter handle to post a 2-minute video. It read:

On the same day, General Secretary of Uttarakhand BJP, Suresh Bhatt shared a few moments from his attending the webinar. 

Notably, the mutual consensus from all political parties of the nation is considered crucial on this concept by the BJP leaders. BJP national general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Bhupendra Yadav said that parties will be consulted with and a mutual decision will be made in the future before implementing 'one nation, one election'.

  What does 'one nation, one election' mean?

In essence the 'one nation, one election' concept means holding simultaneous elections of the Central and State governments, with the aim of consolidating effective governance between the Centre and States; the advantages of this system lies in saving money, making speedy development  and keeping a check on black money. Stating that this system will make India able to 'compete with other nations by being an effective democracy', the centre has quoted smooth government working and increased efficiency of each department through a simultaneous system. Nevertheless, regional issues and regional parties are believed to fade out in this process, while it may also cause delay in election results and various constitutional problems.

Interestingly, the concept of simultaneous elections was initially implemented as the very first election of Independent India, and was even repeated in the year 1952 after the formation of the constitution, keeping in context the Centre and State assemblies. 

However, the central government's efforts in bringing up this system has faced severe criticism in the hands of opposition parties, mainly Congress. In a letter to the Law Commission, the Congress vehemently opposed the idea saying that it is against the basic structure of Indian federalism. 

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