One Nation, One Election bill seeks to streamline governance and cut costs, not promote one-party rule: Bhatt
PIONEER NEWS SERVICE | Dehradun
Bharatiya Janata Party State president and Rajya Sabha MP Mahendra Bhatt has described the One Nation, One Election bill as an important step toward building a developed India. He stated that it is the right time to hold a healthy discussion on this issue both inside and outside the parliament and to move toward a decision.
Bhatt said that the proposed reform is not aimed at promoting a single-party system but at reducing administrative disruptions, lowering election expenses, optimising the use of public resources and encouraging greater public participation in the democratic process. He explained that frequent elections disrupt development activities due to the enforcement of the model code of conduct. This affects new welfare schemes, burdens the government machinery and results in high expenditure. He informed that over Rs one lakh crore was spent on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections alone. By holding elections once every five years, nearly Rs 12,000 crore could potentially be saved. According to the data, simultaneous elections in 2024 could have added 1.5 per cent to the country’s GDP, roughly Rs 4.5 lakh crore, he said.
Bhatt claimed that frequent elections also cause administrative interruptions, halt policy implementation, and delay welfare schemes. Teachers are assigned to election duties and schools are turned into polling booths. Bhatt said that simultaneous elections could reduce these disruptions. He stated that this idea is not new and was once the basis for forming governments in India until 1967. Bhatt said that the government formed a high-level committee under former President and constitutional expert Ram Nath Kovind to study the matter in detail. The committee held consultations with 62 political parties, out of which 47 responded. Of those, 32 supported the simultaneous elections while 15 opposed it.
The committee also received opinions from four former Chief Justices of India and nine former Chief Justices of High Courts, who found the proposal consistent with the basic structure of the Constitution. The committee further consulted all four Chief Election Commissioners, former State Election Commissioners, legal bodies, business associations and invited public feedback, with 83 per cent of the responses favouring the bill. Bhatt said that the bill proposes conducting elections to the Lok Sabha and all State Assemblies at the same time. In case a government is dissolved mid-term, elections will be held for the remaining term only.
To implement this shift, a timeline has been proposed extending to 2034, giving the election system, including the Election Commission, political parties and voters, enough time to adjust. He claimed that Congress had benefited from this process in the early years of Indian democracy but later misused Article 356 to dismiss state governments and create political instability.
