Power shift to EC? Opposition slams One Nation One Election Bill – is there merit to the claim?

One Nation One Election Bill: Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal tabled the two bills, paving way for ‘one nation, one election’ or simultaneous elections, in the Lok Sabha today, December 17.

The two bills approved by Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Union Cabinet on Thursday include The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the The Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2024. Amid opposition by opposition, the bills have been sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for further discussions.

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 proposes to amend three articles of the Constitution and insert a new one, Article 82A. One of the concerns raised by the opposition is that the bill gives excessive powers to Election Commission of India (ECI).

Trinamool Congress MP, Kalyan Banerjee, one of the vociferous opponents of the bills, said these Bills hit the basic structure of the Constitution.

“Article 83(2) is against proposed Article 83(5). Article 82A (3) simply says that tenure of State legislative assembly depends upon the tenure of house of people (Lok Sabha). States are not subordinate to Parliament, Banerjee said after the bill was introduced in Lok Sabha

“These Bills take away the autonomy of the State legislatures. Proposed Article 82(5) gives enormous powers to Election Commission of India (ECI), and the ECI will decide whether or not to hold elections. We oppose these Bills,” he elaborated.

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi also said the Prime Minister Narendra Modi governments wants to end the entire federal structure of India and give more power to the ECI. “The ECI where there is no role of the Supreme Court in the election of its Commissioner. We have opposed this unconstitutional bill today,” Gogoi told news agencies outside Parliament on Tuesday.

One Nation One Election Bill

The bills that pave way for unified elections across the nation has been on the agenda of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for quite some time now.

Once passed in the Parliament, the Lok Sabha, the Assembly, and the local body (urban or rural) elections will be held in the same year, if not at the same time.

The first step is to hold Lok Sabha and Assembly polls together. Local body elections will be held within 100 days, the high-level panel led by former president Ram Nath Kovind recommended it its report on the simultaneous polls

If the Bill gets passed without any changes the ‘One Nation, One Election’ initiative could be implemented from 2034.

What is Article 82A- the proposed addition

Article 82A of the Constitution is a proposed amendment in The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 that would allow for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and all Legislative Assemblies. This article is proposed to be inserted after Article 82 of the Constitution, which deals with the readjustment of seats in the Lok Sabha and the division of states into constituencies after each census.

The proposed article deals with the readjustment of the allocation of Lok Sabha seats between states after every Census.

The President, according to the first clause of the article, would issue a public notification on the date of the first sitting of the Lok Sabha after a general election to bring the provisions of Article 82A into force. The date of the notification would be called the appointed date.

The second clause, as mentioned in the draft bill, says the terms of all legislative Assemblies elected after the appointed date and before the expiry of the full term of the Lok Sabha shall come to an end on the expiry of the full term of the House of the People.

This means that some state Assemblies will have their five-year terms curtailed in order to pave the way for simultaneous elections. This is where the concern from the opposition comes from

Article 82A(3) says the Election Commission shall conduct general elections to the Lok Sabha and all Legislative Assemblies simultaneously.

Proposed fifth clause in the article – 82A(5)

The proposed fifth clause in the article – 82A(5) – gives the Election Commission of India the option of not holding any particular Assembly election along with the election to Lok Sabha, the issue raised by Banerjee in the Lok Sabha today.

“If the Election Commission is of the opinion that the elections to any Legislative Assembly cannot be conducted along with the general election to the House of the People, it may make a recommendation to the President, to declare by an order, that the election to that Legislative Assembly may be conducted at a later date,” reads the draft Article 82A(5).

The sixth clause or the Article 82A(6) proposes that if the Assembly election is deferred, the full term of that Assembly will also end with the full term of the Lok Sabha elected in the general election. This, the opposition, says will undermine the state legislatures.