SIMULTANEOUS ELECTIONS

June 17, 2019

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited heads of all parties in Parliament to a meeting to discuss the idea of “one nation, one election”.

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Indian polity is perennially in an election mode. Barring a few exceptional years within a normal 5 year tenure of the Lok Sabha, the country witnesses, on an average, elections to about 5-7 State Assemblies every year.
For example, besides Lok Sabha elections in 2014, polls to about 15 State Assemblies were held during March 2014 – May 2016.
Add elections to the third tier of Government, bye-elections etc., and the number of elections in any given year would increase substantially.
In this background, Law commission in its 170^th report remarked that the holding of a separate election to a Legislative Assembly should be an exception and not the rule. The rule ought to be one election once in five years for Lok Sabha and all the Legislative Assemblies.

Source : The Hindu