World

Government panel recommends India hold simultaneous state, national elections

Report will not affect the upcoming elections as a 'one nation, one election' law will have to be passed

Reuters March 14, 2024

A kite-maker prepares kites with election symbols of Indian political parties ahead of general election, Kolkata, India, March 27, 2019. PHOTO: REUTERS

MUMBAI:

A government-appointed panel on Thursday recommended India hold elections to state assemblies and the national parliament at the same time, saying the process would increase transparency and inclusivity and improve governance and growth.

The panel, appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government in September, submitted its report to President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday, days before an election date is expected to be set.

The report will not affect the upcoming elections, which have to be held by May, as a "one nation, one election" law will have to be passed by parliament and ratified by states, many of which are ruled by Modi's rivals and have opposed the idea as they say it violates India's federal politics.

Nearly one billion voters are eligible to vote in the general elections, but polls to the 28 state assemblies are spread out as they take place when their five-year terms end.

"Asynchronous elections cause uncertainty and instability, thwarting supply chains, business investments and economic growth," the panel, led by former president Ram Nath Kovind, said.

The nine-member panel said it found that real GDP growth was higher when simultaneous polls were held, compared to a decrease when they were not.

Simultaneous polls used to be the norm in India, but the cycle was disrupted decades back, resulting in the current staggered system.

The panel recommended that as a first step, simultaneous elections be held to the lower house of parliament and state assemblies, with the terms of state assemblies being curtailed or extended to synchronise with parliamentary elections.

In the second phase, elections to local bodies such as municipalities and village councils would be held within a hundred days of state and national elections.

Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pushed for combining state and federal elections as it would also help cut the cost of conducting polls in the world's most populous country and ensure politicians are focused on governance rather than electioneering.

COMMENTS (1)

Rebirth | 9 months ago | Reply Simultaneously conducting all elections will make it easier to have an alliance of Muslim political parties to run for elections at the federal and state level. Those who ensured that there would be no Dalit Muslim quota because there s no caste system amongst Muslims should look into this electoral reform. The Muslims should have a combined Muslim quota regardless of caste or creed. We tried an ethnic Sindhi quota in Pakistan and it failed. In fact it destroyed our education system and economy leading to fake domiciles that benefitted the Punjabians more than anyone else. If there s a Muslim political party alliance and they do run for elections across all states and at the federal level they should make Muslim quota their main electoral issue. But before a community is granted a quota they would need to know how many of them are there. So it would be absolutely necessary for such a Muslim political party alliance to make conducting a fair and transparent census a part of their electoral manifesto. Muslim quota and fair calculation of the Muslim population in the census which the Indian government refused to conduct in 2021 should be their two-point agenda. Fighting against the CAA and UCC should be restricted to the election campaign unless they do wish to have those removed. Finally we know that the crypto caste Hindus in Pakistan are trying to follow in the footsteps of Mujeeb and Mukti Bahini by imposing Punjabi on 45 of Punjab s population that doesn t speak Punjabi and they speak Seraiki and Potohari while in the urban areas even fewer speak that language and prefer Urdu. The Muslims should follow suit and if they win in other Indian states they should declare Urdu as an official language as in West Bengal and Telangana. In UP at the very least Urdu should ve been declared an official language since that is where it evolved from Persian and some local languages. Karnataka Gujarat Delhi Maharashtra Kerala and Assam are other states where they must consider making Urdu an official language. The success of Telangana isn t just inter religious harmony but rather the fact that there s linguistic independence. The Muslims speak Urdu while the Hindus speak Telugu. In other states its the overlap and interference caused by speaking and learning each other s languages that issues arise. Use an example of a wife that doesn t speak your mother s language. They can never fight and their relations will always be formal. Urdu should therefore be an electoral issue at the state level and if there s an issue with hijab or UCC they should look at that.

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