Prime Minister Narendra Modi suggested to hold simultaneous elections for Lok Sabha and Vidhan Sabha, but it may require amendments of as many as five Articles of the Constitution. The Times of India accessed an internal note of the Ministry of Law which stated that in order to hold simultaneous elections in India; it will require amendments in more than 5 Articles. PM Modi, while pitching for his idea of simultaneous elections said that in the last general elections of 2014, more than four-thousand crores had been spent. While the opposition has been furiously opposing the proposal, PM argued that holding simultaneous election will be beneficial for the country in terms of money, time and manpower.
The ministry of the law said that these not holding elections simultaneously will lead to many constitutional challenges including the dissolution of Assemblies and duration of Lok Sabha. This point has been raised in by The President Ram Nath Kovind and PM himself. Prime Minister will give his reply to the debate on Wednesday in his motion of thanks to The President’s address in the Upper House. The discussion on the debate started on Tuesday and it is most likely that the motion will be adopted by the house. It is almost certain that on Wednesday, after PM’s reply, the house will adopt the motion where NDA has an overwhelming majority.
The poll panel has been supporting PM on simultaneous elections, while Election Commission says that the Article 83 of Indian Constitution will have to be amended which will lead to the terms of State legislatures being cut short for them to coincide with the upcoming general elections in 2019.
The articles which need to be amended for the elections to be held simultaneously along with Article 83 are: Article 174, relating to dissolution of state Assemblies and Article 356, under which President’s rule is implemented: Article 85, which deals with the dissolution of the Lok Sabha by the President and Article 172, which deals with the duration of state legislatures.
Prime Minister, while asking political parties to set aside politics for his proposal gave examples from history where Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections were held simultaneously till 1967. The opposition, however, refused the idea as it was not feasible for the ground reality. Major opposition parties including Congress, Left Front, and AAP said that simultaneous elections will not lead any good for the country. They said that it will be against the federal principles for which the Constitution stands.
There has been a lot of speculation of advancing the Lok Sabha elections for 2019 to be advanced to coincide with major states of MP and Rajasthan which were scheduled to be held later this year. Arun Jaitley, Union Minister said that this will not be possible as it will require extensive process within a short period.
