For the upcoming Winter Session, you will see the One Nation One Election bill table.
The Narendra Modi government has high on its agenda the bill to allow simultaneous Lok Sabha polls and state assembly elections — the Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the ‘One Nation, One Election’ Bill. Sources told HT that the legislation would be tabled during this winter session of Parliament. The bill will be sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC). On the government front, the bill allowing simultaneous Lok Sabha and state assembly polls is on the agenda.
The proposal had been cleared in the report presented by a high-powered committee headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind to the Union cabinet in September.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the proposal and said, “The Cabinet accepted recommendations of the High-Level Committee on Simultaneous Elections.”
I complement our former President, Shri Ram Nath Kovind Ji, for leading this initiative and seeking broad stakeholder input.” However, PM Modi said this is essential to making democracy more vibrant and participative.
It also asked for concurrent polls for the Lok Sabha and state assemblies in the first phase and synchronized local body polls in 100 days, which Kovind called a consensus of ‘One Nation, One Election’.
On Wednesday, former President of India Ram Nath Kovind called for the Centre to build a consensus on ‘One Nation, One Election’.
“Constructing consensus must come from the central government.” No one is interested in this issue but the nation. But it will be a game changer because economists feel that after ‘One Nation, One Election,’ the country’s GDP will increase by 1-1.5 per cent,” Kovind added.
On Wednesday, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan supported simultaneous elections to the state assemblies and the Lok Sabha, saying frequent elections waste time and money.
“Being an agriculture minister, I spent three months campaigning.” It wastes the time of the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers, Ministers, Members of Parliament, Members of the Legislative Assembly, officers and employees. The standstills all of the development work. After that, announcements must be made,” ANI quoted the minister.