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Thursday, December 19, 2024
On Tuesday, India’s Law Minister introduced the ‘ One Nation, One Election‘ bill in the Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament. The proposed legislation aimed to synchronize elections for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, conducting them simultaneously either on a single day or within a specified time frame. In the voting session, 269 members supported the bill, while 198 opposed it.
After the vote, a joint parliamentary committee was to be formed, comprising 21 members from both houses of Parliament, to examine the proposed amendments. The committee would review the draft bill over the next 90 days.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a strong proponent of the bill, stated that “Frequent elections are obstructing the nation’s advancement”, and called for a streamlined electoral process to address this issue.
In March, the government formed a committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind to examine the feasibility of synchronized elections. The committee submitted an 18,626 page report recommending simultaneous state and general elections, as well as local elections within a 100-day timeframe. The committee also sought feedback from political parties, receiving 47 responses, of which 32 expressed support.
Opposition parties, particularly members of the INDIA bloc, criticized the proposal. They argued that synchronized elections could undermine India’s parliamentary system and potentially disadvantage regional parties in favor of larger national parties.
However, the BJP-led alliance, which supported the bill, argued that it would significantly cut down election related expenses and enable governments to concentrate more on governance, rather than being perpetually engaged in election campaigns.
