Bills to enable simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha as well as state and Union territory assemblies will be introduced in the Lok Sabha by Union Minister for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal on Monday as per the list of business for the day.
On Thursday, the Cabinet approved the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment Bill), 2024, and circulated it to MPs on Friday evening.
As per the draft Bills, simultaneous elections would come into effect on an “appointed date” to be notified by the President on the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after a general election. As per the Constitution Amendment Bill, all state assemblies elected after this appointed date would have their terms curtailed to end along with that of the full term of the Lok Sabha, thereby paving the way for simultaneous elections.
Since the first sitting of the Lok Sabha elected in 2024 is past, the earliest the appointed date can be notified is the first sitting of the House elected in the 2029 elections. This means that simultaneous polls could be held by 2034 when the full term of that House ends.
The Bill adds a new Article 82(A) (simultaneous elections to the House of the People and all Legislative Assemblies) and amends Article 83 (Duration of Houses of Parliament), Article 172 (Duration of State Legislatures), and Article 327 (Power of Parliament to make provision with respect to elections to Legislatures).
Similarly, the Bill for Union territories makes the same changes to provisions for the assemblies of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, and Puducherry.
The Bills were drafted as per the recommendations of the high-level committee chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind, which was appointed by the Law Ministry on September 2, 2023 to suggest ways and amendments to enable simultaneous elections.
As per the Bills, in case the Lok Sabha or any state or UT Assembly is dissolved before the end of the full term, mid-term elections for that legislature alone would be held for the remainder of the five-year term.
The draft bill inserts Article 82(A), which says, “The President may be by a public notification issued on the day of the first sitting of the House by the people after a general election, bring into force the provision of this article, that date of the notification shall be called the appointed date.”
“Notwithstanding anything in article 83 and article 172, the term of all legislative assemblies constituted in any general election held after the appointed date and before the expiry of the full term of the House of the people shall come to an end on the expiry of the full term of the House of the people,” the Bill says.
In the statement of objects and reason, the government cited “expensive and time-consuming” polls as the reason for implementing simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state/UT assemblies. While saying it was imperative to hold simultaneous elections, the government did not specify the cost or the exact timeline for the roll-out.
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