While the governing government has already proposed the One Election System in India, it has been opposed by opposition parties. Presently, the State assembly and Lok Sabha elections are two separate elections and if they are organized at the same time, it can be big relief to not only the administration and people but to the economy as well.
The former Chief Commissioner of India, did bring up the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing committee which harped upon the enormous amount of money that was spent of conduction elections separately and the cost saving of adopting a one election methodology. The four reasons includes that were mentioned besides two more at the India foundation Symposium on One Nation, One Election include the following –
- The imposition of Model Code of Conduct on separate election results in a policy crippling.
- A mammoth manpower is needed to handle the election in a country beyond billion
- It does impact the delivery of essential services adversely
- Blows a big hole in the pocket of the government
The other two reasons included –
- Many parties and political leaders make promise big freebies and money at times during the election time
- Caste and communalism reaches its peak during the election times.
In the month of July 2018, the law commission did invite all the National and State parties that were recognized for conformity on the proposal but very few showed up. The opposition party also had their say on the same. Many political leaders of opposition put their thoughts that included the following –
- The idea or concept is fundamentally anti-democratic
- The opposition said that one election could help the ruling party to hide their poor performance and policy failures
- It would weaken the regional parties and strengthen the national ones.
The NITI Aayog was in favor of one nation one election on reasons of financial and administrative loading issues that arise on account of separate elections beside the point that it would go on to avoid the misuse of MCC. The MCC comes into force when the dates of election are announced and prevents the ruling government from making any changing like transfers, posting without EC approval, new appointments or launch of new schemes to name a few. It acts like a trap for governance and also leads to destabilizing the elected government and burdening the treasury heavily. The Estimated cost of the election of 2014 was around 4000 crores and the 2019 elections would definitely cross this amount.
Thus, approval of the one nation one elections will definitely mean a lot of savings of people’s money and a big advantage to the election commission as well as campaigning parties.
*Source from the Internet