One Nation One Election: FM Sitharaman says 'consultation is over', we will definitely enforce it

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, in an exclusive interview with News18, said that consultation about One Nation, One Poll (ONOP) is over.

Speaking to Managing Director of Network 18, Rahul Joshi, on Monday (September 16), she stressed that the public agrees that the country is spending too much on various elections on every level- from national elections to panchayat ones.

Another issue with different elections at different times is that development activities get held up due to model code of conduct being enforced before the elections and until results are out. She said that these are avoidable expenses with ONOP.

The finance minister confirmed that Modi 3.0 will enforce One Nation, One Poll for the benefit of country.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi first raised the issue of “one nation, one election” within a few months of coming to power in 2014.

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Then, almost a decade later, in March 2024, a high-level committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind recommended a two-step approach for holding simultaneous elections for the three tiers of the government – the national elections to the Lok Sabha, state elections for electing members to the legislative assemblies, and polls for local bodies like panchayats.

For accomplishing this ambitious feat, the first step, the committee’s report said, should be to simultaneously hold elections to the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies.

It added that the second and final step would be to sync panchayat and municipal elections in a way that they are conducted within hundred days of the elections to the LS and legislative assemblies.

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In its report, the committee stated that synchronised elections contributed to comparatively higher economic growth and lower inflation than the system India currently follows. Synchronised elections were also linked to improved quality of expenditure and higher public spending and investments.

Notably, senior Congress leader P Chidambaram said earlier in the day that implementing ONOP would require at least five constitutional amendments. He claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi does not have the numbers to get those constitutional amendments.