Gandhinagar, May 19 (IANS) The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on ‘One Nation, One Election’ on Tuesday said simultaneous Lok Sabha, Assembly and local body elections could save nearly Rs seven lakh crore, improve governance efficiency and increase India’s GDP growth by up to 1.6 per cent, as committee chairperson and Lok Sabha MP P.P. Chaudhary outlined the panel’s ongoing consultations and proposed framework.

Addressing a press conference, Chaudhary said India had followed a synchronised election system until 1967, when Lok Sabha and state Assembly elections were conducted together.

“Till 1967, Lok Sabha and Assembly elections were held simultaneously. The cycle was disturbed after the premature dissolution of seven state Assemblies in 1968 and later during the Emergency period. Gradually, elections across states went out of synchronisation,” he said.

He said several institutions, including the Election Commission, the Law Commission, and parliamentary committees, had, over the years, recommended simultaneous elections.

“The Election Commission proposed simultaneous elections in 1983. The Law Commission also supported the idea in multiple reports. In 2015, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice, headed by a Congress Rajya Sabha MP and comprising members from different political parties, also recommended that Lok Sabha and Assembly elections should be held together,” he said.

Chaudhary said Prime Minister Narendra Modi later constituted an eight-member committee under former President Ram Nath Kovind to examine the proposal.

According to him, the committee spent around 186 days preparing its report before the matter was referred to the JPC.

He said the committee’s recommendations propose synchronising Lok Sabha and Assembly elections, followed by Panchayat and Municipality polls within 100 days.

“The purpose is that the remaining time should be fully utilised for governance, development, and welfare instead of continuous elections. Every year, five to six states go to the polls, and the country remains in election mode throughout the year,” he said.

Chaudhary said the JPC was preparing a report of more than 18,000 pages after consultations with constitutional experts, economists, former judges, political parties, educational institutions, industry representatives, and civil society stakeholders across the country.

He said economists consulted by the committee estimated that simultaneous elections could save around Rs seven lakh crore and increase GDP growth by approximately 1.5 to 1.6 per cent.

“Nearly five crore labourers migrate for around a month during elections to return to their native places for voting. This affects industries, production, GST collections, and economic activity across states,” he said.

He said repeated elections also affect governance because officers and departments are frequently diverted for election-related work.

He noted, “If officials from departments implementing welfare schemes are assigned election duties, policy implementation slows down. Government departments lose continuity when senior officers are repeatedly deployed for elections.”

Chaudhary also raised concerns about the impact on education, saying government school teachers are regularly assigned duties for census operations, voter lists, and elections.

“If teachers are constantly engaged in election work, then who will teach the children? Poor families also deserve proper education, and teachers should remain in classrooms,” he said.

Referring to tourism-dependent states, Chaudhary said repeated elections during peak tourism seasons adversely affect local economies.

He cited Uttarakhand as an example, saying the state informed the committee that around 42 per cent of its economy depends on tourism. “If Lok Sabha elections are held during one tourism season and Assembly elections during another, the economy suffers twice,” he said.

The JPC chairperson also addressed constitutional concerns surrounding the proposal and said consultations had been held with former Chief Justices of India, former Supreme Court judges, and senior legal experts.

“We discussed whether simultaneous elections violate the Constitution, the federal structure, or fundamental rights. The feedback from legal experts has been that synchronising election timings does not violate the Constitution or take away powers from states,” he said.

He said the committee had also consulted economists and legal professionals including Harish Salve and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.

Chaudhary said the committee would continue consultations with the Election Commission, the Home Ministry, political parties, and state governments regarding by-elections, local body elections, and implementation mechanisms.

“One Nation, One Election does not mean elections happen only once. It means elections are synchronised and conducted together through a planned calendar,” he said.

He added that the committee had so far visited Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Chandigarh, and Karnataka before Gujarat as part of its nationwide consultation process.

“Our effort is to rise above party politics and work in the national interest. The objective is to ensure governance, development, and public welfare are not repeatedly interrupted by elections,” he noted.

–IANS

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