Centre looks to table bill on one nation, one poll
A bill to pave the way for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies ranks high on the Union government’s agenda
A bill to pave the way for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies ranks high on the Union government’s agenda and could be tabled in Parliament in the ongoing winter session or the coming budget session, people familiar with the details said on Monday.

The proposal to align elections was a part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s 2024 poll manifesto and has the backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi but is fiercely opposed by a raft of political parties and activists who allege that it will hurt democratic accountability.
The bill that is likely to be sent for scrutiny by a parliamentary committee has not been circulated among members so far, but there is speculation that it could be introduced in the winter session that winds up on December 20, said the people cited above.
In September, the Union cabinet approved the recommendations of a high-level committee – headed by former President Ram Nath Kovind – on implementing simultaneous polls across India, setting the stage for the far-reaching but controversial reform that can reshape the world’s largest democracy.
READ | One Nation, One Election: What are the 11 proposals in Kovind panel report?
The bill is likely to be a constitutional amendment and would require legislatures of at least half of the states to ratify it.
Several Opposition parties including the Congress, the Trinamool Congress and the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, among others, have opposed the move; the government is keen to build consensus on the bill and may refer it to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed discussions, said the people cited above.
The 18,000-page Kovind report had outlined a phased approach to synchronise elections, beginning first with Lok Sabha and state legislative assemblies, and following up with local body polls within 100 days.
PM Modi has repeatedly pitched for simultaneous polls to bring down expenses and cut down on restrictions imposed on policymaking.
The Kovind panel – set up by the Union government on September 2, 2023 — received responses from 47 political parties, with 32 favouring simultaneous elections. These parties — which include the BJP, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Janata Dal-United (JDU) and the Shiv Sena — said the proposal will save scarce resources, protect social harmony, and stimulate economic development.
However, 13 political parties opposed simultaneous elections — including Congress, Aam Aadmi Party, and(M) —expressing concerns that it could violate the basic structure of the Constitution, be anti-democratic and anti-federal, marginalise regional parties, encourage the dominance of national parties, and lead to a presidential form of government.
The panel finally suggested an amendment to the Constitution to introduce synchronised polls to elect the Lok Sabha and state assemblies as the first step. It also suggested synchronising the elections to municipalities and panchayats with the Lok Sabha and assemblies at a later stage.
National and state elections are conducted by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and local body polls are conducted by state election commissions.
Indicating that 2029 might be the year to start with the first step, the panel recommended that terms of some of the state assemblies will have to be cut to hold simultaneous polls for the Lok Sabha and state legislatures after the five-year term of the next Lok Sabha ends.
The panel proposed a new legal regime, requiring certain amendments to enable simultaneous polls, even as it remained emphatic that the suggested changes are not anti-federal, violate the basic structure of the Constitution, or will result in a presidential form of government.
For holding the Lok Sabha and state assemblies’ polls together, the panel recommended amendments in Articles 83 (duration of Lok Sabha) and Article 172 (duration of state legislatures), which provide that their term will be of five years “unless sooner dissolved” by the President and the state governors respectively.
READ | ‘One nation, one election’ gets Cabinet nod: A timeline of simultaneous polls
From the first elections in Independent India in 1952 until 1967, elections were held simultaneously across the country.
But since the Lok Sabha and state assemblies can be dissolved before their tenures end, the state and national elections came to be held at different times after that.
Several committees, including a parliamentary panel, the Niti Aayog and the Election Commission of India, have studied simultaneous polls in the past, backing the idea but flagging logistical concerns.
HT reached out to political leaders for a comment, but did not receive any.
