‘One Nation, One Election’, the idea originally proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save resources and time, would not only require major constitutional amendments but huge efforts by all concerned to implement it.
In his Independence Day address to the nation last month, Modi had made a strong pitch for the idea, contending that frequent polls were creating hurdles in the country’s progress.
“The nation has to come forward for One Nation, One Election,” he had said.
The Prime Minister, in fact, has been talking about it for some time now. He mentioned his desire to see India have the concept of One Nation, One Election on several occasions in the past few years.
However, opposition political parties, including the INDIA bloc, say that they were not favor if it and the proposal would meet strong opposition from them.
The idea to have one election for the Centre, the states and the UTs with assemblies, would not be easy to organize because of obvious reasons.
For example, a state that may have witnessed fall of the government within a year of its formation and the elections for the whole nation are to be held only after a gap of four years, then what happens to the state concerned?
There bound to be several issues of the same nature that would make it almost impossible under the present political setup in the country.
In fact, it would lead to a constitutional crisis in the country, and a major change is needed in given political set up in order to make it happen.
However, the Prime Minister, who has been talking about it for a long time now, must have something in his mind concerning how he plans to see the proposal implemented.
As of now, it seems very difficult – especially on two counts – one the non-BJP governed states won’t agree to the proposal, two even if all states and the Centre agree to it, the implementation of the idea on the ground would require a major change to make it a reality.
Modi, while promoting it, says it would free the country from elections every now and then, hence helping the governments to focus on development-related issues.
Also, the high expenditure on arrangements would come down drastically and India would be able to save lots of money, which could be used for the welfare of the people.
On the hand, the opposition criticizes the idea, saying it is not possible and Modi wants to create anarchy in the country.
In case it’s to be done, it would require at least five constitutional amendments, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram has said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have the numbers to place those constitutional amendments either in the Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, he further added.
“It is not possible. The INDIA bloc is totally opposed to ‘One Nation, One Election,” he was quoted in the reports as saying.
Meanwhile, the BJP that won 240 Lok Sabha seats – 32 short of the majority mark, and is running the government with the support of TDP and JDU – who together hold 28 seats, still fearlessly not only talk about it but says that the idea will be a reality in the present term of Modi government.