The committee reviewing the Bills to hold simultaneous elections is working on a mechanism to fully implement the “one country, one election” reform by the 2029 general elections, the chairman of Parliament’s Joint Committee said on Friday.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the committee’s two-day meeting in Goa, PP Chaudhary claimed that about 99 percent of the civil society stakeholders who have been consulted so far have supported the proposal. The objective of this proposal is to prevent the economic loss of an estimated Rs 7 lakh crore due to repeated elections.
Discussed In Goa
The Committee discussed the Goa Constitution (129th Amendment) Bill, 2024. It began with an interaction with the Chief Minister of Goa, Pramod Sawant, and members of his cabinet, seeking their views on the challenges of conducting simultaneous elections and how to deal with them.
Chairman of the committee Chaudhary said that the committee has visited many states including Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi, where it interacted with constitutional experts, civil society, academics and other concerned people.
Signed To Be Implemented In 2029
The BJP MP from Pali in Rajasthan said that around 99 percent of the stakeholders are in favor of holding elections together. Now the effort is to create such a system, which all political parties accept. When asked about the time frame for implementing it, Chaudhary said that the committee is considering several options.
This indicates that this reform may be implemented by the general elections in 2029. He also said that if the political parties and the Chief Minister voluntarily agree to synchronize the timing of their election process, then there is a possibility of bringing some states under this system even before that.
