Open Magazine — February 14, 2018

48 12 february 2018

implement,” he says, “a way has to be found.”
On its part, the opposition senses a tactical design in the BJP’s
eagerness to press ahead with simultaneous elections. Even the
Lok Sabha polls have been ‘presidential’ ever since Modi took the
national stage, many of its leaders worry, and his popularity could
override local factors in other polls too. That Modi makes it a point
to lead his party’s campaign for state assemblies—successfully for
the most part—only appears to add to their nervousness.
Senior leaders have begun to voice resistance. Former Union
Minister P chidambaram, for example, argued at a recent panel
discussion that the constitution gave each state’s legislature its
own term and it would have to be amended for such an idea to be
implemented. While some polls could be postponed and others
brought ahead, he added, this could not be done for all 30 states.
The Left, meanwhile, has explicitly rejected the proposal. “We
are not for any change in the present constitutional scheme of
things,” says cPM Politburo member Prakash Karat. “It would
mean the cutting short of some assemblies or extending the term
of some. This would mean a violation of the rights of people and
requires a constitutional amendment.”
When India began as a democracy, Lok Sabha and state polls
were held together. Over time, they fell out of synchrony—most
sharply of all in 1971, when the congress under Indira Gandhi
advanced the General Election due in1972 by a
year and threw assembly polls into a separate
schedule. This was a political calculation; Indira
Gandhi, having split the party in 1969 and na-
tionalised banks with communist support, was
keen to consolidate power by making the most
of her popularity. The Lok Sabha’s five-year cycle
has also been disrupted by half a dozen mid-term
polls held since the first General Election of 1952.
Once, in 1977, the house’s term was extended
by ten months on account of the Emergency
declared in 1975. More recently, in 2004, then
Prime Minister aB Vajpayee chose to advance
that year’s General Election by a few months, but
this gambit went awry as the BJP lost power at
the centre as also in four states that went to the
polls alongside. In general, simultaneous polls
magnify political gains as well as losses. The mid-
term dismissal of state governments, done often
over the 70s and 80s under article 356, has also
had a role in shifting poll cycles around.
natchiappan says the need of the hour is to
forge a consensus. “The fear of smaller parties
is that their existence may be at stake if simulta-
neous elections are held,” he says, “But, in 1952,
at a time when the congress had a monopoly
and all elections were held at the same time, the
communist Party became the [main] opposition
party in the Lok Sabha; and in 1957, it won the
state elections in Kerala.” That was the first time
an opposition party won an Indian state. he re-

calls how when his panel landed in chennai, the late aIaDMK

supremo J Jayalalithaa, who was fighting a bypoll in rK nagar, had

sent party leader Thambidurai with a signed note in support of the

idea in principle. She wanted a fixed term for the Lok Sabha as well

as state assemblies under a law similar to the UK’s Fixed-Term

Parliaments act, under which polls can be held before the end

of five years only on a two-thirds vote in the house of commons

or if a government is defeated on a no-confidence motion and an

alternative cannot win enough votes to replace it within 14 days.

The niti aayog document does not back the proposal of fixing

tenures. rather, it cites the Election commission’s recommenda-

tions to the parliamentary panel that to avoid a premature disso-

lution of the Lok Sabha, a no-confidence motion moved against

the government in office should include a mandatory confidence

motion in favour of a replacement (under a named leader) to be

voted upon at the same time. It also says if a situation should still

arise where the house needs to be dissolved, then for the remainder

of its term—unless it is too long—a provision should enable the

President to govern the country on the advice of a council of Min-

isters till the next house is constituted as per its electoral schedule.

In case the period is too long, then fresh polls could be called, but

with these MPs asked to serve only till the end of the original term.

The paper proposes a similar formula for state assemblies.

politics

“the “we

Prime Minister

has said we should

evolve a healthy

debate. Taking

cognisance of that,

we held a ‘One Nation,

One Election’ seminar.

The idea need not be

literally one election. It

could be two elections.

We have kickstarted

a debate”

Vinay sahasrabuddhe

vice-president, bJP

prakash Karat

CPM Politburo member

are not for any

change in the present

constitutional scheme

of things. It would

mean the cutting short

of some assemblies or

extending the term of

some. This would mean

a violation of the rights

of people and requires

a constitutional

amendment”