What are the merits and demerits of casting votes to regional party in lok sabha elections?
Answers
The present government has been rooting for One Nation One Election (ONOE) which entails that elections to the National Legislature (Lok Sabha) and State Legislatures, Panchayats and Urban Local-bodies to be held simultaneously. It means structuring the Indian election cycle in a manner that elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies are synchronised together under which voters in a particular constituency vote for both State Assembly and Lok Sabha the same day.
The idea of SE’s isn’t new to the country.Earlier, SE’s were held in India till 1967 which was disrupted due to premature dissolution of Assemblies.
The Constitution of India apart from stipulating that elections have to be held every five years for both parliament and state assemblies (except J&K where legislative assembly has 6 year term), the constitution is silent over whether this should happen simultaneously. However, the Supreme Court has held that wherever enacted laws are silent or make insufficient provisions for the conduct of elections, the Election Commission (EC) has residuary powers under the constitution to act in an appropriate manner. Accordingly the idea of SE remerged in first Annual Report of Election Commission of India(1983) and later was furthered by Law Commission’s Report (1999) and 79th report of Parliamentary Standing Committee (2015). In 2017, a paper by NITI Aayog on SE was released discussing the relevance of the idea.