One country-one election is ‘just a touch’ of Modi government

BJP and RSS Journalists and political analysts with backgrounds are all enthusiastically extolling the imaginary benefits of holding elections at the same time. No one is discussing the major practical difficulties and challenges in implementing this system. Although on social media, BJP supporters have launched a campaign in support of ‘one country, one election’. But in reality, there are many constitutional and practical difficulties in implementing it, which are not easy to overcome. So ‘one country-one election’ is still a long way off. Amidst the environment being created by the government and the ruling party, no one is claiming that this bill will be presented in the winter session of the Parliament this year for ‘one country-one election’. Even if the government presents this bill, it will be sent to the joint parliamentary committee, because Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has already said that the government will discuss this bill with all political parties in the next few months. Will try to reach consensus.

In fact, the intention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government about ‘one country-one election’ is not new, because Modi expressed his intention about ‘one country-one election’ shortly after becoming the Prime Minister in 2014. He said that his government will implement this system very soon. After that, he repeated his intention on many other occasions from Red Fort to Parliament, but never took any serious initiative in this direction, although he had the necessary two-thirds majority to pass such a bill. was Modi could have passed this bill in the Rajya Sabha as well, because despite not having a majority there, his government has passed many bills in the right or wrong ways during 10 years. During which there were governments of BJP and its undeclared allies in more than half of the states of the country. But it didn’t happen. Indeed, the bigger challenges than the constitutional hurdles are practical ones, which Modi probably understands or has been made aware of. That is why they have been doing only ‘Shigufebaazi’ about this serious issue. However, a few months before the completion of his second term, he once again tried to show that he was really serious about the issue by forming a committee under the chairmanship of former President Ram Nath Kovind to make suggestions on the issue.

However, overall the situation now is that the government has tried to throw a stone in the stagnant water i.e. by passing a related proposal in the cabinet to see how many waves rise, i.e. assessing the strength of the opposition. has played a trick to do The recommendations of the committee chaired by former President Kovind, which were accepted by the government, were handed over to the President by the Kovind Committee on March 14. Then why has the government taken more than 6 months to approve them? On the basis of these recommendations, the draft of the bill has not been prepared yet, nor has it been told when the government will present the bill in the parliament, only by passing the proposal in the cabinet, a ruckus has been created. In fact, to implement the intention of ‘one country-one election’, many amendments have to be made in the constitution, some of which have to be approved by the legislatures of half of the states of the country and they have to be approved by both the houses of the parliament. Separately, it will have to be passed with a two-thirds majority, while the government does not have such a majority in the parliament. The government has a simple majority in the Lok Sabha and it can also win a simple majority in the Rajya Sabha by juggling. The government cannot get a two-thirds majority without bringing along several major opposition parties. This means that even in the current Lok Sabha, this bill cannot be passed until the opposition party agrees. Perhaps that is why, after the decision of the Cabinet, Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnav has said to make a common consensus with all the parties. At present, the figures in terms of numbers in the Parliament are not in favor of the government. The government has 293 MPs in the Lok Sabha, but 22 of them belong to parties that opposed the ‘one country one election’ idea before the Kovind Committee or remained neutral. Thus, there are only 271 MPs who support the idea of ​​’one country one election’ in favor of the government. Even if the government gets the support of all 293 MPs, it is still far short of a two-thirds majority, as the government would need the support of 362 MPs for a two-thirds majority. That means the government will have to arrange for 69 more MPs or all the MPs from the government side must be present during the voting on the bill in the Lok Sabha, while 103 MPs from the opposition party must also be absent. In this way, only 439 MPs will remain in the Lok Sabha at the time of voting, then the government can pass the said bill with the support of its 293 MPs.

Similarly, BJP and NDA are also in Rajya Sabha. The state of the alliance is not very pleasant. If the nominated MPs are left, then the NDA It has only 112 Rajya Sabha MPs, while currently there are 237 Rajya Sabha MPs. The government is one MP short of a simple majority. If the seats of all the nominated MPs are filled and 4 Rajya Sabha MPs from Jammu and Kashmir are also elected, then the majority figure will be 123, while 164 Rajya Sabha members will be required for the constitutional amendment. In such a situation, the government will either have to arrange for 164 MPs or vote for half of the Rajya Sabha members from the opposition.