New Delhi: The Election commission of India is in favour of holding Lok Sabha and Assembly polls simultaneously.
According a report in The Indian Express, the Poll watchdog has sent a letter to the law ministry expressing its willingness to conduct parliamentary and state polls together.
“In so far as the Election Commission is concerned, the issues involved in holding simultaneous elections are not insurmountable for it. If there is political consensus and will across the board, needless to say that the Commission supports the idea of considering simultaneous elections,” The daily quoted from the two-paged letter.
The EC's support has come in the backdrop of PM Modi rallying behind this idea.Concerned over parties and workers spending too much time and money in electioneering, PM Modi had proposed concurrent polls panchayats, urban local bodies, states and Parliament.
The Prime Minister was concerned that the way the electoral calendar of the country is set up, there are polls every year in some part of the country or the other. With the Model Code of Conduct coming into force in one State or the other and even for the Centre in some cases, this leads to administrative lethargy, and issues
Conduct of simultaneous polls to the Parliament and state assemblies is also a promise in the party’s manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections in 2014.
Last year, the parliamentary standing committee on law and personnel has strongly recommended holding of simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections all over the country.
In its report submitted in Dec 2015, the panel recommended a two-phase election schedule to make the Lok Sabha and Assembly polls coterminous, but had raised uneasiness in different political parties. The Congress and the Trinamool Congress had rejected the proposal as being unfeasible, while the AIADMK asked for fixed dates for polls and not at the whims of the Election Commission.
However, the report also states that most of the political parties which responded to the panel's questionnaire have said while the idea is "noble", it's "difficult to implement".
The Election Commission estimates that holding elections to Lok Sabha and assemblies cost around Rs 4,500 crore.
The first general elections to the Lok Sabha was held simultaneously with all State Assemblies in 1951-52. That practice continued in three subsequent general elections held in the years — 1957, 1962 and 1967. However, due to the premature dissolution of some Legislative Assemblies in 1968 and 1969, the cycle got disrupted.In 1970, the Lok Sabha was itself dissolved prematurely and fresh elections were held in 1971.
The term of the fifth Lok Sabha was extended till 1977 under Article 352. After that, the eighth, tenth, fourteenth and fifteenth Lok Sabha could complete their five year terms. The sixth, seventh, ninth, eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth ones were dissolved prematurely.
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