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Soni Mishra
Soni Mishra

Elections

President favours simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha, state assemblies

pranab-mukherjee-1012ap (File) President Pranab Mukherjee

President Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday favoured simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, saying such a move can reduce inconvenience caused in terms of expenditure and management of polls.

Putting his weight behind the proposal, which has the strong backing of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mukherjee, who was speaking at the Seventh National Voters' Day celebrations in Delhi, said if the initiative is taken by the Election Commission and the political parties arrive at a consensus, a reform is possible.

Modi has strongly advocated simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies with the slogan `One Nation, One Election.' He is expected to convene an all-party meeting soon to discuss the possibility of having simultaneous elections in 2024.

Addressing a function organised on the eve of National Voters' Day on Tuesday, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi had said simultaneous elections will require an amendment to the Constitution besides additional resources.

“The Commission, with certain additional resources, can undertake the exercise of simultaneous elections in the future. But there are two pre-conditions...there should be an amendment in the Constitution through a process of political consensus and we will need some additional resources in terms of electronic voting machines etc.,” Zaidi said.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law, in a report that was submitted to the government in December, 2015, had favoured simultaneous elections. Following this, the government had asked the Election Commission to present its opinion on the matter.

The EC had conveyed to the Law Ministry that such an exercise will incur an additional cost of Rs 10,000 crore. It also said simultaneous elections would require more security personnel and EVMs.

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