No ECI proposal to create a single voter list: Law min Arjun Ram Meghwal in RS
Meghwal was responding to a question by SP MPs Javed Ali Khan and Ramji Lal Suman on how the government plans to conduct ‘One Nation, One Election’ without a common voter list
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has not proposed the creation of a single voter list for all elections held in the country, the minister of state (MoS) for law and justice Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday in a written response.
He also said that ‘One Nation, One Voter List’ will require amendments to the Indian Constitution.
Meghwal was responding to a question by Samajwadi Party (SP) MPs Javed Ali Khan and Ramji Lal Suman on how the government plans to conduct “One Nation, One Election” without a common voter list.
Meghwal explained that the Lok Sabha and state assembly elections have a common electoral roll right now as the roll for every parliamentary constituency consists of electoral rolls of all the assembly constituencies within it, according to section 13D of the Representation of the People Act, 1950.
However, the respective state election commissions (SECs) prepare the electoral rolls for elections to urban local bodies and Panchayati Raj institutions, according to Articles 243K and 243ZA of the Constitution, he said.
“Presently, various state governments and Union territories are using the electoral roll data prepared by the Election Commission of India (ECI) for preparing the electoral roll for local bodies/panchayat elections,” the response read.
Also Read: Panel may soon place report on ‘One Nation, One Election’ before Cabinet
The ‘One Nation One Election’ report, submitted to the president by the high-level committee on March 14, noted that while most SECs use the data from the electoral roll prepared by the ECI, “to prepare the voter list for local body elections and some SECs prepare their own voter list”.
The report had also noted that UPS Madan, the state election commissioner (SEC) of Maharashtra, had suggested preparing a single voter list as one of the measures to conduct simultaneous elections.