Amit Shah, Adhir Chowdhury in Kovind-led ‘One Nation, One Election’ panel
The committee will start its function immediately, the law ministry mandated in its notification on Saturday
The Centre has finally set the ball rolling in working towards simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections in the country with the Union law ministry on Saturday (September 2) notifying the formation of a high-level committee led by former president Ram Nath Kovind to examine the feasibility of the proposal.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah, Congress’ Lok Sabha leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, former leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, former chairman of 15th Finance Commission NK Singh, former Lok Sabha general secretary Subash Kashyap, senior advocate Harish Salve, and former chief vigilance commissioner Sanjay Kothari will be members of the committee. Minister of state (law) Arjun Ram Meghwal will attend the meetings of the high-level committee as a special invitee.
As mandated in the notification, the committee will examine and make recommendations at the earliest for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state legislative assemblies, municipalities and panchayats, keeping in view the existing framework under the Constitution of India and other statutory provisions.
The committee will examine and recommend specific amendments to the Constitution, the Representation of the People Act and any other laws and rules which would require amendments for the purpose of holding simultaneous elections. It will also examine and recommend, if the amendments to the Constitution would require ratification by the states.
The committee will also analyse and recommend possible solutions to scenarios such as hung House, adoption of no-confidence motion, or defection or any such other event in case of simultaneous elections.
The committee will hear and entertain all persons, representations and communications which in its opinion can facilitate its work and enable it to finalise its recommendations.
Special session
This comes days after the government, in a surprise announcement, called a special session of Parliament from September 18 to 22 without citing any reason. Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that once the committee submits its report, it will be discussed in the public domain and Parliament.
Over the years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed strongly for the idea of simultaneous Lok Sabha and state Assembly polls, and the decision to task Kovind to look into it underscores the government’s seriousness as a host of elections approach.
Assembly polls are due in five states in November-December and they will be followed by the Lok Sabha elections in May-June next year. The BJP government has been saying simultaneous polls are more cost-efficient and logistically viable.
(With agency inputs)