Infographic | 'One Nation, One Election' in numbers

Simultaneous elections had been the norm post Independence, and the feasibility of holding the same was considered as recently as 2015.

The Centre has formed a high-level committee to chalk out the possibility of conducting simultaneous general and state elections days before the Special Session of the Parliament is set to commence. The Opposition bloc I.N.D.I.A has been vociferous in their protest against the proposal, with prominent leaders saying that this is an attack on India’s federal structure.

Simultaneous elections, however, had been the norm post Independence, and the feasibility of holding the same was considered as recently as 2015.

In December 2015, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, then headed by E M Sudarsana Natchiappan, came out with a report titled ‘Feasibility of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and State Legislative Assemblies’, which cited the suggestions made by the EC on the issue.

The report had said that the EC pointed out several difficulties which might be encountered in conducting simultaneous elections, most of which stem from the scale of the exercise.

The main issue highlighted by it was that simultaneous conduct of elections would require large-scale purchase of Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) machines.

While official figures have yet to be released, the process is expected to require around 30 lakh EVMs, according to former Chief Election Commissioner O P Rawat.

“The ECI has been recommending since 1982 that an amendment should be brought to bring those state assemblies that are out of sync with Lok Sabha back in sync. In 2015, we submitted a feasibility report to the government. It would require amendments to the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act. And the ECI would need more time and money to manufacture more EVMs and VVPATs. A total of about 30 lakh EVMs (control units) would be needed,” Rawat was quoted as saying by The Indian Express.

India’s massive population is also expected to have an impact on the administration’s ability to hold simultaneous elections across the country.

India has 94,50,25,694 registered voters as of January 2023, according to the Election Commission. It will be a logistical challenge to ensure everyone gets to vote for both state and general elections during the election period if simultaneous polls come into being.

Expectedly perhaps, the estimated cost of holding simultaneous elections would also be gargantuan.

In the December 2015 report on the feasibility of simultaneous polls, it had been estimated that a total of Rs 9284.15 crore would be needed for the procurement of EVMs and VVPATs to carry out the exercise.

What the Law Ministry says

Law Minister Arjun Meghwal has listed five impediments to the materialisation of this proposal. According to Meghwal, amendments have to be made in five Articles of the Constitution for ‘one nation, one election’ to be implemented. Moreover, the consensus of all state governments and political parties have to be taken into account.

Another challenge is related to the lifespan of electronic voting machines (EVMs). "Considering that the life of the (EVM) machine is only 15 years, this would imply that the machine would be used for about three or four times in its life span, entailing huge expenditure in its replacement every 15 years," the law minister said.

Meghwal further told the Parliament that as of March 2023, the ECI had 13.06 lakh control units (CUs) and 17.77 lakh ballot units (BUs). Moreover, 9.09 lakh CUs and 13.26 lakh BUs are currently under production.

Sparring over costs

While BJP leaders and Union ministers backing the proposal have claimed that this will lead to reduced poll expenditure, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has rubbished the claims.

“The fact that the cost incurred by Election Commission in conducting all elections between 2014-19 (including Lok Sabha 2019) is around ₹5,500 crore, which it is only a fraction of Government’s budget expenditure, makes the cost saving logic like penny wise, pound foolish,” Kharge recently said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

When were simultaneous elections held in India?

Indian elections were held simultaneously post Independence, as was seen in the state and general elections in the years 1952, 1957, 1962 and 1967. Later, after some state and Union governments were not able to complete their five-year terms, this system got disrupted and was eventually done away with.