With the idea failing to gain traction with political rivals, the BJP is thinking of making a start by shifting elections in states where it is in office.
New Delhi: Unfettered by the absence of political consensus on simultaneous polls, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is exploring the possibility of holding as many assembly elections as possible with next year’s Lok Sabha polls, a senior party functionary said.
The aim, sources say, is to set the stage for an eventual transition to simultaneous elections. The idea, a pet cause of Prime Minister Narendra Modi also supported by President Ram Nath Kovind, has generated scant enthusiasm among the BJP’s political rivals, who allege it is a bid to strengthen the party’s hold on office.
While polls in BJP-led Arunachal Pradesh, as well as Telangana (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) and Andhra Pradesh (Telugu Desam Party) are already likely to coincide with the general election, as they did in 2014, the party is reportedly considering advancing the elections scheduled for 2019-end in BJP-led Maharashtra and Haryana.
This means the two legislatures could be dissolved earlier than the scheduled end of their tenure.
‘Ready, steady, go’
Another option being explored is to defer the elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, all led by the BJP, by three to four months. However, any such move — though legal by expert consensus — will prove contentious and politically fraught, and is unlikely to pan out.
Asked if such a move was possible legally, constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap said it was, adding that only the maximum term of assemblies was fixed, and not the minimum.
“There is clause (in the Constitution) that says ‘unless dissolved earlier’, the term will be of five years,” said Kashyap.
Kashyap said the governor could recommend the dissolution of the assembly and President’s rule if convinced about the need to hold the elections together.
Former chief election commissioner S.Y. Quraishi said the option was legally tenable, but emphasised the need to have watertight grounds for dissolution.
“President’s Rule has been questioned in the Supreme Court many times. There have to be good grounds to go for such an option,” he said.
Despite the odds against postponement, the BJP’s local units in the states headed for polls say they are ready to face elections whenever they are held.
Chhattisgarh BJP chief Dharamlal Kaushik told ThePrint that the state was in the process of sending a proposal to the Centre requesting that the assembly election be held with the parliamentary polls.
“It (holding the elections together) will save resources and money, and the state machinery won’t be overused either,” he said.
“There should be a discussion with stakeholders that states going to polls six months ahead of and six months after… should hold the election exercise with the parliamentary polls. It will be a slow and steady process towards simultaneous polls,” he added.
Rajasthan BJP president Madan Lal Saini said, “The decision (to club Rajasthan polls with the general elections) is the central leadership’s to make. We are ready.”
Haryana BJP chief Subhash Barala echoed Sainai, saying the state could go to polls whenever the party’s central leadership decided.
Talking to ThePrint, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu said simultaneous polls will be a progressive step.
The other option
A third idea being discussed to achieve the one-nation-one-election vision is to advance the Lok Sabha elections to hold them with assembly polls slated for 2018-end, a possibility discounted earlier by BJP president Amit Shah.
Sources said the consensus was stronger in favour of the first option, adding that legal opinion was being sought to ensure any decision to hold the elections together cannot be challenged.
“We have various commission and committee reports (see below, ‘Reports cited by BJP’) to support our argument of conducting elections in these states and for the Lok Sabha simultaneously,” a highly placed source in the party said.
“There is intense discussion underway within the BJP on the issue, and senior leaders are looking at the pros and cons of it,” the source added.
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Asked about Shah’s repeated claims that the Lok Sabha polls will not be advanced and simultaneous elections may not be possible in 2019 due to lack of consensus, the source said, “He did say that… but the possibility of clubbing polls in a few BJP-ruled states with the Lok Sabha election… is being discussed very seriously within the top echelons of the party.”
Meanwhile, the RSS-backed thinktank Rambhau Mhalgi Probodhini has been tasked with generating a consensus among parties on simultaneous polls.
The thinktank and its associates, as a result, have been holding seminars where prominent political leaders of a given state are invited as keynote speakers along with advocates to talk about the legalities involved.
“Though the topic is one nation, one election, the debate is nuanced. There are discussions on holding elections in those states that are poll-bound in 2018 and 2019 together with the Lok Sabha polls,” said a BJP leader involved in the exercise.
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Other states slated for polls over the next year and a half are Mizoram (2018), and Odisha and Sikkim (2019).
Reports cited by BJP
In a report on the feasibility of simultaneous polls that was submitted in Parliament in December 2015, the standing committee on personnel, public grievances, law and justice said such an exercise will reduce expenditure.
The expense argument featured prominently in a Niti Aayog paper penned by Bibek Debroy and Kishore Desai the next year, which argued in favour of simultaneous polls too. In the paper, the duo pointed out that India witnessed a phase of simultaneous elections roughly from 1951 to 1967, which coincided with three general elections.
In a white paper released earlier this year, the Law Commission, India’s highest legal advisory body, suggested possible recommendations for holding the exercise, including phase-wise elections in 2019.
The Election Commission, too, has spoken in favour of the idea.
Fear is that there is more anger against state bjp govts than centre govt… So they want to club them to hide deficiencies
Deferring assembly elections in R / M / C would lack constitutional morality, whatever the position in law. However, preponing the elections in H / M / J, to coincide with the general election, would be perfectly in order.