The Prime Minister’s Office earlier this month held consultations with top officials about having a common voter’s list for all elections – local bodies, Assembly and Lok Sabha.
The meeting was chaired by Principal Secretary to Prime Minister PK Mishra on August 13 and discussed two important points. First, a constitutional amendment to Articles 243K and 243ZA would be required that would make it mandatory to have a single electoral roll for all polls in the country.
Second, to persuade the state governments to tweak their respective laws and adopt the Election Commission’s (EC) voters list for local body polls as some of the states like Uttar Pradesh Uttarakhand, Odisha, Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala, Odisha, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and also the Union Territory (UT) of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) have their own voters list for local body polls.
This is significant as a common voters’ list align with the idea of simultaneous elections, an idea that the present government has been mooting for a long time. It is being speculated that the Center is likely to take a key decision on a having simultaneous elections across the country soon.
The idea of preparing a common voters list has been endorsed by the Law Commission in its 255th report and also by the Election Commission.
The Modi government has already indicated that it can save on election expenses by holding simultaneous elections in all states and for the centre across the country. It is also one of the promises made by the BJP in its election manifesto.