Simultaneous Elections: Good news or a demonetisation-like disaster?

The idea is to change the current electoral system from a Test Match to a fast-paced, cheerleader-friendly 20-20 Match.

WrittenBy:Meghnad S
Date:
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Not much has been said about a major reform that seems to be approaching us from just over the horizon: Simultaneous Elections. This is a reform of such gigantic proportions that it might change the way our democracy functions forever and ever.

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I know you might be looking at the screen right now and going…

Trust me. It’s going to be crazy big.

In his address to Parliament on 30 January 2016, the President said this:

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Chatter has been sparse but there is chatter. And it looks like there would be movement on this front soon. In January 2017, NITI Aayog put out a paper authored by Bibek Debroy and Kishore Desai, which discusses the possibility of simultaneous elections in detail. The whole thing is getting serious because even PM Modi batted for simultaneous elections while addressing the NITI Aayog in April 2017.

And following his meeting address, Lalu Prasad Yadav did what he does best: Flipped a Finger.

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Things are clearly heating up and we will likely hear more talk about this after our new President is elected. Why? Because the President will play a crucial AF role in HOW these simultaneous elections happen. He/she will be the one handling the transition.

Given these developments, this week let us talk about the favourite national sport of India after Cricket: Elections.

Pay attention because it’s likely that the format of the game is about to be changed from a slow, dry, test match to a fast-paced, cheerleader-friendly, 20-20 match. Exciting times indeed!

Elections now

Let’s get down to the basics. I’m going to attempt to explain the rules of the game in simple words.

Right now, at this point of time, you, my dear citizen, are supposed to vote in three different elections in one election cycle. One to elect your Member of Parliament (MP) who sits in Parliament, one to elect your Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) who sits in the State Assembly and one to elect your Councillor who sits in the Municipal Council a.k.a. Nagar Palika. (If you’re from a rural area, you will elect Panchayat members.)

All of these elections happen at different points of time depending on the life of the Parliament/Assembly/Municipality. For example, the General Elections happened in April 2014 where citizens of Maharashtra voted to elect their MPs. This was followed by a state Assembly election in October 2014. And the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections happened in March this year. Three different elections held at separate times to elect leaders in different positions of power. This election cycle varies for every state.

Or as NITI Aayog puts it:

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As you can very well see, it’s quite quite messed up!

Given this complicated scenario, the government has got the bright idea that these elections should be synced up.

Here’s an excerpt from NITI Aayog again explaining the concept:

“… the term “Simultaneous Elections” is defined as structuring the Indian election cycle in a manner that elections to Lok Sabha and State Assemblies are synchronized together. In such a scenario, a voter would normally cast his/her vote for electing members of Lok Sabha and State Assembly on a single day and at the same time.”

Sync it all up people!

(For simplicity sake, we are going to only talk about Parliament and State Assemblies from this point forward, not the local body elections. Because the NITI Aayog said so. OK? OK.)

Elections later

Let’s assume this ambitious plan of syncing up all them elections actually goes forward. Let’s assume that the new President gets elected in July and the first thing he/she does is dissolve all State Assemblies AND Parliament at once and orders the Election Commission to hold elections everywhere at once. (Because the President *can* do that)

The problem is that it would be absolutely outrageous to expect Yogi Adityanath to go for ANOTHER election shortly after the one that happened in March this year. His Assembly would last for only a few months and he will go, “WTF youguys! Y U DO THEES? I just came to power and was about to launch a new police squad to beat up people who poop in open air! #SwacchBharatMax.”

Similarly, Manohar Parrikar would lose his shit in Goa because he *just* moved back to his beloved Goa from the oh-so-polluted New Delhi. Just when he was starting to breathe easy again, simultaneous elections would happen. He’ll be like, “What man! There’s no way I’m winning this election again! Victory in the recent one was… *cough* difficult *cough*… as it is.”

There would be some states that would be cool with this because it would not affect them at all. States like Odisha, Sikkim, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are synced up with General Elections by default.

Then there are states like Bihar (elections happened in 2015) West Bengal and Tamil Nadu (elections happened in 2016). If simultaneous elections are held in 2019, it would mean they would have to *cut short* their Assembly term by two years. They would not get to govern for complete five years (which is the usual life of an Assembly).

I told you it’s messed up. But it gets messier.

So how did we get here?

How is it that General and State Assembly elections are held at different times? Way back in 1951, when the first elections of India happened, they were simultaneous. Both Lok Sabha & state Vidhan Sabhas went for elections together. But that changed soon after.

The state government is completely separate from Parliament, as envisaged by our visionary forefathers who drafted the Constitution. This was done to preserve the spirit of federalism, which is to say that states have an identity of their own, OK? (Delhi can go bugger off, OK?)

There are times when shit goes down in the land of politics and a particular government falls prematurely. For example, in 1977 after Indira Gandhi had gone bonkers with the Emergency, the first non-Congress government was elected led by Janata Party. But, because there were so many factions and infighting, the government couldn’t last long and Parliament had to be dissolved in 1979. Elections were held again in 1980, which saw the resurgence of Congress. In such situations, the Assembly and Parliament elections go out of sync.

Then there are times when state governments have phases of turmoil. Recent example being that of Arunachal Pradesh where the Congress MLAs decided to switch parties en masse, then come back en masse, then switch party again en masse. The President dissolved the Assembly in 2016 so that government had a life of only two years. BUT, elections were not held because the new government led by BJP was able to prove majority. There is now a possibility that fresh elections will be held in the state prematurely, in which case, the present shiny new Assembly will also end up ruling for a short period of time.

As you can see, it’s quite a task to synchronise all these state elections with general elections. To give you an idea of how messed up and complicated maintaining a government is, here is a chart of our central governments till date. Notice how only a little more than HALF of all elected governments were able to complete a five-year-term.

(The fifth one actually got 10 months extra. LOL.)

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Implications of Simultaneous Elections

Think about this for a second: You are a generally aware citizen (because you regularly read my columns! *high five*) who goes to vote. If you are voting for the General Elections, that is, to elect your MP, you would consider that candidate and their qualities. Or you can go the other way and support a particular party that is more likely to win or you think is the best bet for the country. (Your choice completely, but it would be better if you do the former.)

Let’s say you vote for the “Super Conservative Party of India” (SCPI).

Now, at the SAME TIME, you have to elect the MLAs who will sit in the Assembly. You, since we’ve already established that you’re a fundamentally aware citizen who does her homework, will think that the candidate from the “Insanely Progressive Party” (IPP) is a good one for the state! So you vote for that person.

As a result of this successfully executed simultaneous elections, you would get a government led by the SCPI in Delhi and IPP in your state. You did a smart thing because both will keep each other accountable to get YOUR work done. Neither of them can go bonkers with your tax money.

A nicely done balancing act.

Only, this is an ideal scenario. We do not live in an ideal world. At all.

The whole reason why regional parties exist is because their elections have nothing to do with General Elections. People get that too. Because check out these states that have elections simultaneously with General Elections right now. All of them have regional parties in power in the state and a large chunk of their MPs are from the same regional party.

Orissa – Biju Janata Dal (20 out of 21 MP seats)

Sikkim – Sikkim Democratic Front (1 out of 1 MP seat)

Andhra P – Telugu Desam Party (16 out of 25 MP seats)

Telangana – Telangana Rashtra Samithi (11 out of 17 MP seats)

It is difficult to say how voters will vote if simultaneous elections are held. But, as far as my understanding goes, people are more likely to elect the same party in the Centre and the state. There is an undercurrent thought that runs within a majority of Indian citizens that if both levels of government have the same party, the work will be done faster and delivery will be more efficient.

That might as well be true if you see anecdotal examples of the relationship Delhi Assembly has with the BJP Government. Or the (often) hostile relationship West Bengal Government has with the Centre.

Few questions

Let’s get one thing straight: If this Simultaneous Elections plan is actually executed, it could very well lead to utter chaos. Much like Demonetisation. We will be in uncharted territory so it will be a huge huge risk for even the BJP to do it as well as for regional parties who will, potentially, face an existential crisis. (Just like Lalu Prasad Yadav pointed out.)

  1. The NITI Aayog claims that if simultaneous elections are held, it would save taxpayers’ money because the costs will be drastically cut. While this might be true, can you really put a cost to making a move that *might* end up killing our federal structure?
  2. Will the citizen vote for the same party for both Centre and state if elections are held together? Doesn’t that give an advantage to a party that has been funded better to do a more effective campaign?
  3. Can regional parties even hope to compete with a party fighting national elections with a national agenda? Or, conversely, won’t a national party be spread too thin if it is focusing on both national and state elections at the same time?
  4. Will all of this be a definite advantage for a national party since they themselves would have to spend less money on elections? Think about it: Right now, resources going to a national party are spread across state and general elections, as and when they occur. IF simultaneous elections are held, they will basically spend ALL of that money in one sweep thus severely disadvantaging regional parties (which can only dream of getting such huge amount of funds).
  5. What happens if simultaneous elections happen, governments are elected and then a particular state government falls midway? Will that state go for fresh elections, which would have a shorter term till the next upcoming simultaneous elections or will it get complete five years? If not, how is that fair? Won’t the cycle get messed up all over again bringing us back to square one?

In any case, it looks like a deliberation of some sort is likely to happen on this issue. Keep your eyes peeled for the next President and provisionally be prepared to welcome the 20-20 format of elections in India.

Moral of the story: TEST CRICKET IS DEAD!

There. I said it.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @Memeghnad

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