Simultaneous polls cut cost, fuel growth

KV Prasad

OVER the past few weeks, the issue of holding simultaneous elections in the country for both Parliament and state sssemblies has resurfaced in the public domain. The immediate trigger for the renewed debate is a reference by President Pranab Mukherjee who endorsed the idea, albeit with a rider.

Responding to the students’ question on Teachers' Day in a President's Estate school, Mukherjee was of the view that elections to state assemblies in one part of the country or other frequently comes in the way of development with the Model Code of Conduct coming in. 

He said if political parties put their heads together a solution can be found. He suggested that political parties across the spectrum should think of how to address the issue of political stability. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had raised the issue at an all-party meeting. He said holding simultaneous elections to elected bodies at various levels would provide political parties and its workers more time to take people's welfare programme to the grassroots. 

To put the issue in perspective, the First General Election to the Lok Sabha and all the state legislative assemblies was held simultaneously in 1951-52. The practice continued in three subsequent elections of 1957, 1962 and 1967. A break in this cycle came when some legislative assemblies in 1968 and 1969 were dissolved prematurely. In1970, the Fourth Lok Sabha met a similar fate when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi went in for early elections in 1971 to constitute the Fifth Lok Sabha. The term of the latter was extended till 1977 under Article 352. While four Lok Sabhas — 8th, 10th, 14th and 15th, completed the five-year term, the 6th, 7th 9th,11th 12th and 13th Houses were dissolved ahead of time as were also various assemblies. These were largely due to unstable governments. For the last 48 years separate elections are being held to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, disrupting the  cycle of synchronised elections in the country. Besides halting development works as the Model Code comes into being as soon as poll schedule is declared, the rising cost of conducting polls is also a concern. According to statistics, if the cost of conduct of the first General Election stood at Rs 10.54 crore, it touched a three-digit figure in 1989 at Rs 154 crore, and turned into four digits at Rs 1,400 crore in 2008. It was estimated Rs 3,500 crore in 2014. The last three figures are for the conduct of Lok Sabha polls, while those of the states are separate. 

Simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies also found reflection in a report on electoral laws by the Law Commission a decade and a half ago. Suggesting  incremental steps, the report stated though desirable this cannot be achieved any time soon.

Measures suggested included advancing elections of some legislative assemblies by making necessary orders; holding elections to assemblies making adjustment in phases to reduce the frequency till the desired goal of simultaneous elections is achieved. There was also a proposal for a possible constitutional amendment to provide extension/curtailment of term of one or more assemblies. 

There is a tendency to look at other models in the world and many hold this fanciful idea of emulating the United States of America model of simultaneous elections. Lost in the argument is a basic difference. The US follows the Presidential form of democracy and the government is not required to come to the Congress barring for the passage of the Budget. The United Kingdom, whose Westminster model India adopted, in 2011 passed a Fixed-term Parliaments Acts to provide stability and predictability of tenure. As per it, the first elections was to be held on May 7, 2015 and on the first Thursday of May every fifth year thereafter. The Parliament cannot be extended beyond five years. Another section envisages early elections if a motion for it is agreed to either by two-thirds or the House or without division ; or, if a no-confidence motion is passed and no alternate arrangement is confirmed by the House of Commons within 14 days through a confidence motion. 

Last year, a Standing Committee presented a report to the Parliament of India on the feasibility of holding simultaneous elections. It suggested holding of elections in two groups —to some assemblies at midterm of Lok Sabha and to the remaining at the end of the tenure. The panel drew up a tentative list of assemblies that can be pooled with the first lot facing polls in December this year. Since the December 2015 report, assembly polls were held in Kerala, Tripura, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry. As per the Representation of the People Act, the Election Commission can notify the elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies six months prior to the end of their natural terms, a proviso the Commission  invoked in 1996 in Punjab.

Hoping to build consensus, the Modi government is inviting suggestions from the people on its MyGov platform. At the last count, some 3,000-odd people  responded and the majority said it was a good idea, without offering any concrete suggestion on how it could be done.

Since the BJP-led coalition appears keen to be seen reforming this process, there is an opportunity next year for it to conduct an experiment. The states of Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand, are due to elect new assemblies before March; Uttar Pradesh by May; and Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat towards the end of next year. The BJP is in power in almost half of the seven states where polls are due between March and October 2018. It can opt to go in for early elections at these places by truncating the term of its state governments, thereby creating pressure on those parties who reject the idea as impractical and unworkable. The move should take the idea a step closer of having nearly half the states whose assembly terms will be somewhat mid-way of next Lok Sabha. 

The course correction for assemblies of Delhi, Bihar, Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal, where polls were held in the last 12 months, can  be thought of in due course.

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