Samajwadi Party MPs in the Rajya Sabha Javed Ali Khan and Ramji Lal Suman have raised concerns regarding the maintenance of separate voter lists for different elections, including Lok Sabha, Assembly, and local body polls. They asked the Ministry of Law and Justice to clarify whether the Election Commission plans to introduce a single voter list for all elections and how the “One Nation, One Election” initiative could proceed without a unified voter list.

On Thursday, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Law and Justice, said that under Section 13D of the Representation of the People Act, 1950, the electoral roll for parliamentary constituencies already includes the rolls for assembly constituencies within it. This means that separate rolls for Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections are not necessary. However, electoral rolls for local bodies and panchayats are managed by State Election Commissions (SECs), which use data from the Election Commission of India to prepare their own lists.

Meghwal also confirmed that there are no plans to consolidate these rolls into a single list, stating that such a change would require amendments to the Constitution of India. Therefore, Thus, the government has ruled out the feasibility of implementing a unified voter list under the “One Nation, One Election” framework without substantial legislative changes.