NEW DELHI: The high-level committee on ‘one nation-one election’ chaired by former President Ram Nath Kovind took 191 days of extensive consultations with a range of stakeholders and researchers to complete the report. Constituted on September 2, 2023, the committee engaged in 65 meetings and gathered feedback from various stakeholders, including political parties and experts, until March 10, 2024. After the collective efforts, the final report running into more than 18,626 pages across 21 volumes, encapsulating the collective efforts and insights garnered during the deliberation process was prepared. The committee got support from 32 parties, while 15 political parties disagreed and another 15 refused to respond to the questions. The committee also sought suggestions from public and others through a notice published in 105 major dailies in 16 languages and reportedly received thousands of suggestions. The report prepared by the committee has been divided into 15 chapters in 21 volumes. “The volumes 1-3 contains reports of the committees and commissions and other bodies, volume 4-5 contain details on consultations and researches, volume 6 contains the Constitution of India and other references and laws on it, volumes 7-11 contend important judgments and finally volumes 12 to 21 contain details on Panchayats and municipalities,”said an official source. The report mentions that simultaneous polls in the country were held in 1951-52,1957, 1962 and 1967. “In response to a public notice, published in 105 major newspapers and in 16 languages in all states and UTs, 21,558 responses were received from citizens from all over India and 805 of the respondents supported simultaneous elections,” the source claimed. He also stated that several experts including four former chief justices of India, 12 former chief justices of major high courts, four former chief election commissioners of India, 8 state election commissioners, and the chairman of law commission of India, were invited by the committee for interaction in person. The committee also sought views of the Election Commission of India on the subject. The committee while preparing the report also consulted many eminent economists and personalities associated with business organizations, like CII,FICCI, ASSOCHMA and others. After all these efforts undertaken throughout 191 days, the committee has recommended a two-step approach to lead to the simultaneous elections. As the frist step, simultaneous elections will be held for the Lok Sabha and the State Legislative Assemblies. As the second step, the elections to the municipalities and the panchayats will be synchronized with the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in a way that the former are held within 100 days of holding the latter.
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