Mahiyar Rohinton Patel, Pune
The union cabinet has given its approval for the One Nation One Election proposal. The proposal aims to conduct simultaneous polls for all Vidhan Sabhas and the Lok Sabha. The bill for this manifesto promise of the BJP government is going to be introduced in the upcoming winter session of parliament.
To vet the proposal for simultaneous polls the government had formed a committee under the former president of India Ram Nath Kovind. The high level committee under the former President gave its recommendations a few months before the general elections. Though the contents of the recommendations of the committee were not made public, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced today in a press conference that the Union Cabinet has accepted the full recommendations of the Ram Nath Kovind committee on simultaneous polls.
Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that a vast consultative process was conducted with all the stakeholders involved. Though the Minister has said that over 80% of the respondents and comments taken on the proposal have been positive, the Congress, Shiv Sena (UBT), AAP have vehemently opposed the idea. Their primary objection that the parties have taken is that simultaneous polls will inadvertently benefit the centre in a direct contest.
The press release put out by the Press Information Bureau stated certain precedents and earlier recommendations by various different bodies and commissions. The very first of which was the 170th report presented by the Law Commission in 1999 which recommended simultaneous polls within 5 years. The next reccomendations for simultaneous polls were made in the 79th report of the Parliamentary Committee in 2015, which put forth the proposal for simultaneous polls across the country which should be conducted in 2 phases.
The new proposal for simultaneous polls called One Nation, One Election proposes elections to be held in 2 phases; the first phase would include all Vidhan Sabha seats and Lok Sabha seats and the second phase would be for all the Panchayat and Municipal elections.
Though the approval for all the states is not required for this constitutional amendment, there is a requirement for synchronising the various village political bodies such as panchayats, Zilla Parishads and urban Municipal Corporations, councils etc. The proposal mandates that the second phase of the polls for the panchayats and Municipal bodies be conducted within 100 days of the polls for the first phase.