Holding simultaneous elections is a good idea
BJP president Amit Shah’s letter to the Standing Committee on law and Justice for holding parliamentary and Assembly elections at the same time has added the momentum to the campaign for electoral efficiency. For the BJP, this is a long-standing demand that had featured in the party's 2014 and 2019 election manifestoes. But it was only after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mooted it again early this year that the idea received a fresh breath of life. Quite a few political parties such as the AIADMK and the Asom Gana Parishad have already indicated their support for such a system of simultaneous elections, while different agencies of the State and Goverment machinery are also looking into. Only a few weeks ago, the Election Commission informed the Union Ministry for law and Justice that it supported the idea of simultaneous elections to the lok Sabha and State Assemblies.
This was in response to the law Ministry's requests for comments on a parliamentary report titled Feasibility of Holding Simultaneous Elections to the House of People (lok Sabha) and State legislative Assemblies. The benefits of having at least these big elections at the same time are obvious and can be summed up in one word: Savings. This includes the saving of financial resources, of the state's resources, and of human capital. Elections, be they in India, the world's largest democracy, or in the US, the world's oldest and arguably most powerful democracy, are costly affairs. And with each cycle, they have become costlier, and spawned corruption across the system. Holding elections simultaneously will help bring down this cost significantly — both in material and non-material terms.
For example, every time there is an election, the Government deploys a large number of security personnel to ensure the vote is free and fair. Simultaneous elections will help rationalise these costs and let security personnel focus on core areas. Similarly, the senior leaders of the party who are the almost always the star campaigners, be it State or parliamentary elections, will also get some respite. In fact, the political establishment which is currently on election mode all the time will be able to focus on the things that really matter — governance and policy-making. It is no secret that these have suffered in recent years due to an unforgiving and relentless election-cycle.
That said, switching systems will not be an easy task. Apart from the logistical issues, it is important to consider why the current system of separate elections came into being when India initially had simultaneous elections till 1967. The problem was that in 1968 and 1969, some State Assemblies were prematurely dissolved, and in 1970, lok Sabha suffered the same fate. To address this issue, one needs to possibly look at US-style fixed-term legislatures — currently, in India, if the Government loses the confidence of the lower House, it can go back to the people for a fresh mandate.