Cabinet clears report recommending ‘one nation, one election’
The recommendation for simultaneous elections at the Lok Sabha, Assembly and local levels were made by a committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind.
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The Union Cabinet on Wednesday cleared a report submitted by a high-level committee recommending the “one nation, one election” plan.
The committee, headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind, was set up by the Centre in September 2023 to look into the feasibility of holding simultaneous elections. The report it submitted in March recommended a two-step approach for implementing the plan.
In the first step, the panel said that simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies could be held initially. In the second step, municipality and panchayat elections could be organised within a hundred days of the elections to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
The panel said there is a need to bring back the cycle of simultaneous elections as had been held during the initial decades after Independence. Holding elections every year “casts a huge burden on the government, businesses, workers, courts, political parties, candidates contesting elections, and civil society at large”, the report said.
Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw that there is “widespread support for simultaneous elections in the country”.
“The recommendations [of the report] will be discussed at various forums across the country,” Vaishnaw said, urging the public to participate in the discussions. “A implementation group will be created to implement...
