The Election Commission had suggested as early as in 1983 that a system should be evolved so that elections to Lok Sabha and state legislative Assemblies could be held simultaneously. The Justice B P Jeevan Reddy-headed Law Commission said in its 170th Report in May 1999 that “we must go back to the situation where the elections to Lok Sabha and all the Legislative Assemblies are held at once”.
The BJP calls itself a party with a difference. In power or without, it tries to do things differently. Once again, as the party approaches the last lap of its first full-majority government in power, the spectre of early polls looms large.
This time though, the common refrain on One Nation-One Election is spun around the need to save valuable resources and wring the country out of a perpetual election mode.
The government may, on the contrary, hold the Lok Sabha elections on time in April-May 2019 and complete its full term. As it is six states — Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Sikkim — will hold their Assembly polls to coincide with the General Elections.
If the BJP takes a political decision to prepone or bring forward elections to the assemblies of saying Maharashtra, Haryana, Jharkhand, and Delhi by 6 to 8 months — 10 state elections would coincide with Lok Sabha polls.
If elections to Mizoram, Rajasthan, MP, and Chhattisgarh are advanced by six months, the country may see nearly half of the states in the Union concurrently voting for the state Assembly and the lower house of Parliament.
To postpone elections, the central government in the current constitutional scheme of things will have to impose President’s Rule for six months in these states. Though the ratification of any such move would have to be approved by both Houses of Parliament in six months. It will require political consensus amongst big players.
Politically, this arrangement suits the BJP. Most of the states going to the polls in the span of 13 months beginning December this year are held by the BJP. Some BJP chief ministers are facing anti-incumbency of 10 to 15 years in power.
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