Election synchrony: Convenient or costly?
A panel headed by former president Ram Nath Kovind has submitted an over-18,000-page report on simultaneous national and state elections to President Droupadi Murmu. It is, in brief, an endorsement of the idea and lays down how it may be implemented.
It suggests that polls to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies be held simultaneously as the first step, followed by local-body elections within 100 days. In the event of an unresolvably hung house, or a government ejected by a no-confidence vote, it recommends that fresh polls be held for the rest of the five-year term.
To enable it, parts of the Constitution would need to be amended. The approval of not just Parliament, but also state legislatures would be needed.
India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party may be able to muster the requisite central support for it, especially if it acquires a two-thirds Parliamentary majority with its allies this year, but opposition-ruled states wouldn’t want their administrations’ terms cut short for an initial reset. Convenient as the idea sounds, it’s unlikely to serve the cause of cooperative federalism.
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