One Nation, One Election: Law Commission Meets Kovind Panel (image- twitter/arjunrammeghwal)

The Law Commission on Wednesday gave its presentation on ‘one nation, one poll’ initiative to the committee lead by former President Ram Nath Kovind.

Law Commission Chairperson Justice Ritu Raj Aswathi made a detailed presentation and elaborated on the commission’s suggestions and viewpoints on simultaneous elections. The panel has also officially renamed the High-Level Committee on One Nation, One Election, a Law Ministry release said.

The panel in the meeting also accepted the resignation of Adhir Ranjan Choudhary, leader of opposition in Lok Sabha from the panel’s membership.

Union Minister Amit Shah, law commission Ritu Raj Aswati, law minister Arjun Ram Meghwal and senior advocate Harish Salve attended the meeting.

The Law Ministry has asked the Law Commission the feasibility of holding Lok Sabha and Assembly election together. The Kovind panel will examine its possibility.

The Law commission is focusing on a formula to synchronize all Assembly elections by either extending or reducing the tenure so that these elections can be held along with the 2029 Lok Sabha elections onwards.

As per the sources the final report has not yet been completed. The committee in the first meeting decided to seek view from all political parties. They have sent letters to six national parties, 33 State parties and seven unregistered parties inviting their suggestion regarding the matter.

In 2018, a draft report was submitted by the Union Law Ministry emphasising that by holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies would save public money, reduce burden on the administrative set-up and the security forces and ensure better implementation of government policies. But the report also highlighted the fact that holding simultaneous elections was not possible within the existing Constitutional framework, says India Today.