Rama Krishna Sangem
The Ram Nath Kovind-led panel has submitted its report on the feasibility of implementing ‘one nation, one poll’ to President Droupadi Murmu on March 14, Thursday. This high-level committee, comprising former President Ram Nath Kovind and other eminent members, submitted the comprehensive report at Rashtrapati Bhavan.
The committee recommends that elections of the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies occur simultaneously. Following this, elections to Municipalities and Panchayats should be held within 100 days of Lok Sabha elections. To enable these changes, the committee further recommended introducing Article 324A into the Indian constitution.
There are also points in regard to actions that should be taken in cases such as hung House, no-confidence motion, etc. The committee also clarified in its report that the constitutional amendment to hold simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls does not need to be ratified by the states.
Report 18,626 pages
The report, spanning 18,626 pages, is the culmination of consultations with stakeholders, experts, and 191 days of research since its establishment on September 2, 2023. The key focus of the report is the establishment of a unified electoral roll for conducting elections at various levels of governance, including Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities, and panchayats.
The committee was appointed by the Union Law Ministry and includes many eminent figures such as Home Minister Amit Shah, former leader of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad, and former Lok Sabha secretary general Subhash Kashyap, among others.
Here are the recommendations
The Committee, therefore, recommends that the Government must develop a legally tenable mechanism in order to restore the cycle of simultaneous elections.
The Committee recommends that in the first step, simultaneous elections to the House of the People and the State Legislative Assemblies be held. In the second step, the elections to Municipalities and Panchayats will be synchronised with the House of the People and State Legislative Assemblies in such a way that elections to Municipalities and Panchayats are held within a hundred days of the holding of elections of the House of the People and the State Legislative Assemblies.
The Committee recommends introduction of Article 324A for enabling simultaneous elections in Panchayats and Municipalities with the General elections of the House of the People and the State Legislative Assemblies and amendment in Article 325 for enabling Single Electoral Roll and Single Elector’s Photo Identity Card, which shall be prepared by the Election Commission of India in consultation with the State Election Commission(s).
According to the committee, simultaneous elections to House of the People and State Legislative Assemblies, does not necessitate ratification by the States.
The Committee recommends that in the event of a hung House, no-confidence motion, or any such event, fresh elections may be held to constitute the new House. Where fresh elections are held for the House of the People, the tenure of the House of the People will be only for the unexpired term of the immediately preceding full term of the House of the People and the expiration of this period shall operate as a dissolution of the House.
Where fresh elections are held for the State Legislative Assemblies, then such new Legislative Assembly unless sooner dissolved, shall continue upto the end of the full term of the House of the People.
The Committee recommends that for making logistical arrangements for the conduct of simultaneous elections to the House of the People and State Legislative Assemblies, the Election Commission of India may draw a plan and estimate in advance for the procurement of equipment, such as EVMs and VVPATs, deployment of polling personnel and security forces, and make o
