Pure politics: Opposition will not support, consensus on one country, one election difficult

New Delhi: The central government may have taken the first step by accepting the recommendations of the Kovind Committee on ‘one country, one election’, but the real challenge is yet to come. Putting aside political differences and getting the opposition on its side on this issue and looking at the practical aspects of this scheme are the two things that will decide how successful the government is in implementing this vision.How will the opposition accept it?
The government is planning to present a proposal related to ‘One Nation, One Election’ in the Parliament during the winter session. But it does not have the required numbers for this. This means that it will need the support of the opposition camp. Looking at the kind of relationship that has been there between the ruling party and the opposition since this Lok Sabha election, it does not seem practical to expect that the opposition will cooperate in this matter in any way.

Arguments in favor
The high level committee formed to consider this matter had contacted 62 political parties. Out of these, 47 responded. 32 parties were in favour and 15 opposed. The biggest argument behind holding simultaneous elections in the entire country is that it will reduce expenses. And this argument is also strong that almost all the time there is an election atmosphere in some part of the country, due to which development work gets affected. It is also true that simultaneous elections will be convenient for those small parties who do not have the money to go for campaigning again and again.

How to gather resources
The argument of avoiding the expense of repeated elections is valid in its own place, but the same argument works against this proposal as well. The question is whether the resources required to conduct elections across the country can be gathered on such a large scale? The recent Lok Sabha elections were held in seven phases. State assembly elections are also being held in different phases.

Political diversity After independence, the first four elections in the country were held on this pattern. Even after that, this situation continued for a long time. But then the circumstances were different. There was a single party government in the center and the states. Political diversity has come in our political system due to the strength of regional parties. Every state of the country has its own needs and issues. Every election is fought around these special issues. This diversity of the country should be kept in mind in any change, because this is our strength.