
The contentious One Nation, One Election Bill which received the Union Cabinet’s approval is reportedly likely to be tabled this week in the ongoing Parliament winter session.
It will be tabled and sent to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for review.
As per the recommendation of the Ramnath Kovind Committee Report Parliament and state Assembly elections should be held together while local bodies polls should be conducted in the second phase within 100 days. It will need 18 Constitutional Amendments, some of which will have to be ratified by half of the states of India.
Separately, the Law Commission is likely to recommend holding simultaneous polls for all three tiers of government — Lok Sabha, state assemblies and local bodies such as municipalities and panchayats — starting with 2029 and a provision for a unity government in cases of a hung House or no-confidence motions.
The Kovind panel has not specified any period for rolling out simultaneous polls.
It has proposed the creation of an ‘implementation group’ to look into the execution of the panel’s recommendations.
The panel recommended as many as 18 constitutional amendments, most of which will not need ratification by the state assemblies.
However, these would require certain constitutional amendment bills that would need to be passed by Parliament.
‘One nation, one election’ was one of the key promises made by the BJP in its manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections.