NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s often-repeated idea of simultaneous Lok Sabha and Assembly polls appears to have moved a step forward with the Law Commission preparing a ‘working draft’ recommending it in two phases, beginning 2019.
The draft, accessed by The New Indian Express, has identified 19 states and Union Territories where it can be held along with the general elections due in March-April 2019. The remaining 12 states can go to the polls in the next cycle in 2024.
Sources told TNIE the draft will be discussed at the Law Commission’s meeting on April 17, which is expected to be attended by all members. The draft creates two clusters of states. While Cluster-I can go to the polls in 2019, Cluster-II is for 2024.
Cluster-I includes West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir, all of which are due for Assembly elections in 2021. Cluster-II, on the other hand, has UP, which is arguably the most politically relevant state in India and is due for polls in May 2022.
The second cluster includes Karnataka and Mizoram, which are due to go the polls in 2018.
To synchronise Cluster-II Assembly elections with the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the terms of the respective state assemblies need to be extended, which would require amending the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act (1951).
If due to some reason the terms of state assemblies cannot be extended, then elections in the Cluster-II states may be held about 30 months after Phase-1 of simultaneous polls in 2019, the report recommends.
The report also examined the possible fallout of a no-confidence motion, a hung Parliament and the issue of “ratification of amendments by states’ and recommended workarounds.
It suggested replacing the no-confidence motion with ‘constructive vote of no-confidence’. Through this motion, an opposition would be able to oust a government only when the formation of an alternative government is possible.