The Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) in its third term in the office is adding further items to its populist agenda by proposing controversial legislations like the Uniform Civil Code (UCC), Waqf Bill, and ‘One Nation One Election’ (ONOE). On 17 December 2024, Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal presented two bills for the 129th amendment to the Indian constitution. One bill proposed holding simultaneous elections at the national and state levels. The other proposed to hold simultaneous elections in the Union Territories as well. After fierce debate in Parliament, Speaker of the Lok Sabha (LS) Om Birla forwarded the bills to the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) consisting of 27 Lok Sabha and 12 Rajya Sabha members.[1] So far, the JPC has met twice on 8 January and 25 February 2025 to discuss the feasibility of the implementation of the Bill. However, the final recommendation will be made in the future.
Background
The Ram Nath Kovind Committee, which was established in September 2023, had underlined in March 2024 that separate elections in the Centre and the States were costing the Indian economy and causing administrative and efficiency-related issues. The Committee proposed that to compensate for these economic burdens, the government must hold elections simultaneously. Moreover, the elections for the local bodies be conducted in the next 100 days of the elections.
