Logo

Logo

Elections together

The BJP in its 2014 election manifesto promised to hold elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies simultaneously…

Elections together

(Photo: SNS)

The BJP in its 2014 election manifesto promised to hold elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies simultaneously in future. The Election Commission has said it is logistically ready to hold simultaneous elections by September 2018 subject to adequate supply of Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail machines which the two public sector suppliers, Hyderabad-based Electronic Corporation of India Limited and Bengaluru-based Bharat Electronics Limited, had promised to deliver on time.

The Narendra Modi government has been pushing for return to simultaneous election which had been in vogue in the first four general elections. The Congress split in 1969 deprived Prime Minister Indira Gandhi of a majority in the Lok Sabha, forcing her to take outside support of the CPI and the DMK to remain in office. After stabilising her position by a series of populist measures like abolition of privy purses and nationalisation of banks, she dissolved the Lok Sabha and advanced election to the fifth Lok Sabha to March 1971, one year ahead of schedule. In the process state Assembly elections got detached from Lok Sabha election.

No serious attempt was made since to put simultaneous elections back on rail though the Law Commission of India headed by Justice BP Jeevan Reddy suggested restoration of simultaneous elections in 1999. LK Advani, former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the BJP, made a similar suggestion in 2009. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government of Manmohan Singh did not pursue it. EM Sudarshana Natchiappan of the Congress, as president of the Standing Committee on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice, in its 79th Report submitted in 2015, recommended the holding of simultaneous election.

Advertisement

The Opposition Congress, the Nationalist Congress Party led by Sharad Pawar and the Trinamil Congress of Mamata Banerjee, however, opposed it while several smaller regional parties supported the idea. Article 324 of the Constitution vests the superintendence, direction and control of elections in the Election Commission, but the EC cannot extend or shorten the term of any Assembly in order to bring them in sync with the Lok Sabha and the other Assemblies so that simultaneous elections can be restored.

Amending the Constitution to either curtail or extend the term of the state Assemblies to enable the Election Commission to draw up a common poll schedule is fraught with uncertainties. It is in the interest of the ruling party at the Centre to hold elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies together as the record of the first four general elections shows. The Congress, which was ruling at the Centre then, won most of the state Assembly election also. Of the 29 states and seven Union Territories in the Indian Union, the BJP is ruling in 18; singly in 11 states, as senior partner in two and junior partner in five.

In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK, a client party of the BJP, is in power. Of the remaining 10 states, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripua go to the polls in 2018. It is not beyond the capacity of Mr Modi to make the states fall in line before the next Lok Sabha election due in 2019 to facilitate simultaneous polls. The Election Commission, in response to the Ministry of Law seeking its comments on the 79th Report of the Department-related Parliamentary Committee on the feasibility of holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assemblies, wrote, “In so far as the Election Commission is concerned, the issues involved in holding simultaneous elections are not insurmountable for it.

If there is a political consensus and will across the board, needless to say the Commission supports the idea of holding simultaneous elections.” The EC sought and obtained Rs. 9,284.15 crore to procure additional Electronic Voting Machines and Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail for the purpose. These machines will need periodic replacement.

But it has not shown the kind of independence expected of it in taking decisions. It has been the practice of the EC to club together states where election is due within a month or two. For instance, election to five states, Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh was clubbed together and notified on 4 January.

The term of the current Himachal Pradesh Assembly ends on 7 January 2018 and that of Gujarat Assembly ends on 22 January. In 2012, under a different dispensation, the EC notified election to these two states on 3 October 2012. This time, the notification of Himachal Pradesh election was issued on 12 October but not of Gujarat. AK Joti, Chief Election Commissioner, gave relief and rehabilitation work as one of the factors for the delay in announcing the Gujarat election schedule. TS Krishnamurthy, a former Chief Election Commissioner, said, “The emergency flood relief work is to be done by bureaucrats, not politicians.”

The Model Code of Conduct does not stand in the way of any emergency relief work, nor does it prevent existing projects from continuing. Only no new projects should be announced when the MCC is in force. After the MCC has come into force in HP, the Gujarat government has announced a slew of sops, including waiver of interest on farm loans up to Rs 3 lakh. Hailed a “dream project,” Mr Modi said he would inaugurate it on 22 October. The EC should not play favourites with states. The Constitution provides that appointment of the Election Commissioners will be made subject to the provision of an enabling law enacted by Parliament.

Till date no such law has been enacted and Election Commissioners are appointed by the political executive as if to reward favourite civil servants with a post-retirement sinecure appointment. The ECI is a constitutional institution and should remain free of political influence. Successive governments ignored this lacuna in law making.

While the ECI allowed candidates facing serious criminal charges like murder, rape, abduction and offences relating to moral turpitude to contest elections, the Supreme Court intervened in 2003 and directed all candidates contesting elections to file affidavits before the Returning Officers stating their criminal antecedents, assets and liabilities. It had a sobering effect on aspiring legislators. Unfortunately, the same court on 9 July 2013 struck down Section 8(4) of the Representation of the People Act allowing MPs and MLAs to be continued to be elected representatives even after conviction in criminal offences. On 5 July 2013, the Supreme Court ruled “freebies shake the root of free and fair elections to a large degree” and directed the EC to frame guidelines for the election manifesto.

The EC’s Model Code of Conduct ~ 2014 directed political parties and candidates to “avoid making these promises which are likely to vitiate the purity of the election process or exert undue influence on the voters in exercising their franchise.”

All these came to naught, at least in Tamil Nadu in the 2016 Assembly election. In the interest of transparency, level playing field and credibility of promises, “manifestos should reflect the rationale for the promises and broadly indicate the ways and means to meet the financial requirements for it,” the MCC said. The Modi government should pay greater attention to much needed electoral reforms and safeguard electoral integrity before restoring simultaneous elections.

(The writer is a veteran journalist and was founder-Director of the Statesman Print Journalism School)

Advertisement