The high-level panel report proposed simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, with urban body and panchayat polls to be held within 100 days under one nation, one poll.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday unanimously gave an approval to the one nation, one election proposal recommended by a panel led by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which submitted its report in March this year.
This comes just a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while speaking at a press conference marking 100 days of PM Modi’s third term, asserted that one nation, one election will be implemented in this current term. Earlier, during his Independence Day speech at the Red Fort this year, the Prime Minister had requested everyone to come together for the simultaneous poll legislation.
The Modi 2.0 government had constituted a high-level committee in September last year, under the former President, to examine the feasibility of simultaneous elections. The panel submitted its report to the President in March this year.
Simultaneous elections have been a key promise of the NDA government ever since it came to power in 2014. The report proposed simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, with urban body and panchayat polls to be held within 100 days under one nation, one poll.
Holding simultaneous poll will “transform the electoral process (and) governance” and “optimise scarce resources”, the high-profile panel, led by Kovind, said, noting 32 parties and prominent judicial figures, including former Supreme Court Chief Justices and High Court judges, had backed this measure.
Read More: Former Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal To Vacate His Official Bungalow In Next 15 Days
The panel, which submitted its report in March, also said it had studied “best practices from other countries”, and consulted economists and the Election Commission, before delivering its verdict, but also called for a legally sustainable mechanism to break and re-align existing electoral cycles.
The BJP’s crucial allies, the JD(U) and the LJP, had also extended their support to the move earlier. However, opposition, including the Congress, have strongly opposed the one nation, one election push.
