Mumbai: The Joint Parliament Committee (JPC) for the “one nation, one election” (ONOE) will visit Maharashtra on Saturday. The committee will hold a meeting with all the stakeholders including the state administration to get views on the conducting simultaneous elections of the Assembly and Lok Sabha.
The state government is going to support the ONOE by referring to Sudhir Mungantiwar-led Committee’s report, which has advocated the simultaneous elections from Panchayat to Parliament, a senior official from the state government said. “The exercise is being done to conduct 2029 Lok Sabha elections simultaneously with the Assembly elections,” the senior official said.
In March 2018, the Maharashtra government established a two-member committee under chairmanship of then the finance minister Sudhir Mungatiwar to suggest measures to make the election process transparent and to study the possibility of conducting simultaneous elections. The committee had favoured simultaneous elections. “The frequent elections impact the governance and policy making as the administration has to engage its resources and employees in election duty. In addition to this, expenditure on the elections also gets multiplied,” said the senior official referring to the Mungatiwar committee’s report.
Speaking with this newspaper, Mr. Mungantiwar said that Rs 10 crore used to be spent on the elections in Maharashtra during 1951-52. The expenditure of elections has now increased Rs 5,000 to Rs 6,000 crore in Maharashtra. Besides this, the model code of conduct also hampers the pace of decision making, he said.
“The elections are also an additional burden on the state machinery and security forces. If the elections are held simultaneously, the state will save money and reduce the strain on the state administration,” the former finance minister said.
In December 2024, the Lok Sabha had constituted 39 members of JPC to examine the Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024 and the amendments to the Government of Union Territories Act, 1963, which aim to usher in simultaneous state and national elections.
Officials said that the JPC will hold a meeting at a five star hotel in south Mumbai. The committee will discuss the logistics and possible challenges of simultaneous elections with the secretaries of finance, revenue, home, school education, higher and technical education and law and judiciary departments from 10.00 am to 01.00 pm. Apart from this, the Director General of Police and Maharashtra Chief Secretary will also join the meeting. The JPC will also hold a meeting with all the political parties from 2.00 PM to 4.00 PM.
“We will apprise them how machinery, resources and money can be saved by holding the simultaneous elections in the state.” the official said.
The senior official said that they would inform the JPC about how many booths and EVMs would be needed for the simultaneous elections in the state.
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